The Redeyes are winless after the first two rounds and things don’t get any easier this week when they take on premiership hopefuls Waaia at home in round three of the Picola & District Football League.
Blighty have been hammered down back in rounds one and two, giving up an average of 94 points against Strathmerton and Deni Rovers.
Assistant coach Tanner Robertson said the side is working on slowing down their opponent’s easy scoring.
‘‘Waaia are one of the top sides of the competition but we’re hoping after a poor start we can have a little bit more hunger and work rate.
‘‘Teams seem to be able to transition from one end of the ground to the other quite easily against us, so we’ve been working a little bit on that and going more one-on-one.
‘‘We need to go back to basics, more one-on-one and try to stop their spread, which worked well for them last year.
‘‘They have pretty handy forwards so we need to stop the run and carry (into attack),’’ Robertson said.
He added to counter their strong forwards the Redeyes may have an extra player in defence.
Importantly, the side was keen to get back the effort and ‘hunger’.
The Redeyes will be without Dane Maxwell, who is unavailable, however Brett Napier, Paul Smith and Tyler Amor-Beale are expected to play.
Waaia have been able to defeat two strong sides in Berrigan and Rennie in the opening two rounds, by 16 and 31 points respectively.
Playing-coach Jack Tyndall is expected to take a defensive role to thwart the strong Waaia attack.
‘‘Louis Clarke is playing in the backline and he’s been one of our key players in defence already this year.
‘‘We’re hoping young Darcy Morris up forward, who has had a good start to the year, can have a big game. We’re also looking at a big match from Lachie McDonald,’’ Robertson said.
On exposed form this season, Waaia will go in as firm favourites.
Selection: Waaia by 26 points.