Cats’ form slump continues with big loss to White Hills

After going down by 51 points last week to Leitchville-Gunbower, the Cats were thumped to the tune of 57 points against White Hills at the weekend.

LBU was goalless in the first term, and while a wasteful White Hills kicked 3.7 to leave the Cats in with a chance, they couldn’t capitalise, entering the half-time break down by 20 points.

It only got worse from there, as the Cats gave up six goals to one in the third term, before being outscored again in the last to wind up on the wrong end of the 5.8 (38) to 13.17 (95) scoreline.

Recently re-signed LBU coach Stacy Fiske was strong in his language after the game, admitting his side was almost beaten before it even stepped on to the field.

“With the way that we went into the game and the form we’ve had over the last couple of weeks, we probably turned up without the belief that we can run it with the best teams,” he said.

“We’ve shown that we can do that over the course of the year, but unfortunately turned up thinking that maybe we’re not ready to win this game.

“That’s a knock on myself, and that’s a look at our leaders and playing group to make sure we rectify that aspect.”

Despite Baxter Anderson and Riley McIvor missing from the best 22, Fiske made no excuses, with a very similar side to the one that took to the field on Saturday having beaten finals contenders in North Bendigo and Mount Pleasant recently.

Instead, Fiske highlighted the fact that his side was playing individually rather than as a unit.

“It’s more about the kind of intent that we bring, the aggression we bring to the contest, the will to compete, which we’ve never really had to doubt throughout the year,” he said.

“The last two weeks we’ve been shown a bit of a lesson in that aspect, when a group of 22 blokes turn up and play the right way and play together, it makes us look second rate.

“I think that’s the biggest difference at the end of day, and it’s a pretty big burn on the playing group but also myself as a coach.

“We’ve got to find a way to get back to playing as a unit, as 22 players, that’s as simple as that.”

The loss was also compounded by a win to Leitchville-Gunbower, who knocked off North Bendigo to draw level with the Cats in a race for the finals.

LBU has a game in hand over the Bombers, but also faces a much tougher run home, setting up a tantalising finish.

That race couldn’t be further from Fiske’s mind at the moment, with his goal for the last three rounds of the season to simply get back to playing good football.

“That’s something that we’re probably not going to fully think about,” Fiske said of the prospect of his side making a deep run into September.

“As much as I know that and I believe that, and I think the playing group in the back of the mind know that, we can’t even think about that yet.

“That’s what we think we can do, shake it up if we make it into fourth or fifth, but at the end of the day we can’t shake it up if we don’t get there.

“At this stage our biggest focus is putting out a better performance than we did on the weekend and the weekend before.”

LBU will face ladder-leaders Heathcote at home next weekend, with wins crucial to ensure the back-to-back dream can still remain a possibility.