Saturday proved to be a frustrating outing for the Blues as a disastrous second half saw them fall by 61 points against Echuca United.
The final two quarters became a struggle for the visitors as they managed just one goal after the main break, while conceding 10.
When the Eagles clicked into top gear, Tonny simply couldn’t go with them, according to coach Jordan Souter.
‘‘Their experienced guys started to get their hands on the ball and it was telling,’’ he said.
‘‘To our boys’ credit they gave it everything until the final siren.
‘‘By simply playing against these guys, our guys are going to learn.
‘‘With such a young group, we want to be feeding them as much information as possible.’’
While Souter said that finding a heap of positives was tough in such a big loss, he did begin to see his plans coming to fruition.
In particular during the second quarter, Tonny’s game style was evident as it outscored the home side, three goals to two.
‘‘We look dangerous when we look to take the game on,’’ he said.
‘‘Our forwards were able to benefit from some quick ball movement in the first half.
‘‘Now it’s about turning that into four quarters of consistent footy.’’
Coming into the contest, Souter openly admitted that stopping the rampaging Josh Mellington was going to be a difficult task.
While Mellington finished the day with four goals, nothing could be taken away from his opponent Hamish Cohen, who is still very much new to the fullback role.
Having played as a ruckman for the majority of last season, Souter believed Cohen was ready for a new challenge, one he has tackled head on.
‘‘Mellington didn’t get an easy disposal all day,’’ he said.
‘‘Hamish created a contest whenever possible, making several key spoils.
‘‘Sometimes when a defender does get beaten, you just have to accept it.
‘‘We’re really excited to see how far he can take his game.’’
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