Essendon Mazda Coach’s Comment: Ferrante excited for second half of season

Essendon Royals Senior Men’s Coach Mick Ferrante says his team’s destiny remains in their hands as the second half of the season gets underway this Friday.

The Royals will welcome Banyule City to Cross Keys Reserve on Friday night, in a highly-anticipated State League 1 Men’s North-West clash.

With a crucial run of games to play, Ferrante is looking for his team to build on last week’s 4-0 win over Whittlesea.

“I was really happy with the result, but the performance wasn’t our best this season,” he said.

“But having said that, I’d rather come out of a game playing gritty football like that and winning 4-0 than playing beautiful football and then drawing or losing.

“We need to take the confidence from the result and turn it into a string of wins.”

Buoyed by a good week on the training track, Ferrante said that the State League 1 North-West division was poised nicely for an exciting finish.

“It’s so tight at the moment. Obviously, George Cross are running away with it at the top a bit, but I think even for them there have been a lot of tight and challenging games and everyone is going to drop points in this second half of the season,” he said.

“For us, it’s just about consistency. I think we’ve shown our best football is good enough, but we need to show that we can turn that good football into results.

“The team that goes on a good run at this point of the season will set themselves up nicely.”

The Royals took on Banyule in round one of the competition, taking away a 4-2 win.

That was one of just two games Banyule has lost all season.

“I think the first game of the season it’s hard to read too much into it. We were both finding our feet,” he said.

“They have had some very good results since then and they sit in second, so they’re a good team.

“We take confidence knowing we have had a win against them, but we know it’s a tough game, as they all are in this league. “Winning the physical battle is probably three quarters of it in this league, so we just need to put that together with our ability and start winning games more consistently.”