Bombers With Room To Grow – Sutton

After an emphatic 47-point win in the Speak UP! Stay ChatTY Cup on Saturday afternoon, Lauderdale wingman Rhys Sutton insists his team have room for growth. 

In an ominous warning to the rest of the competition, Sutton reiterrated the message from assistant coach Clint Brown post-game, conceding the Bombers were far from where they’d like to be in the win.

“We are very happy with the win. We probably didn’t play our best footy so to still get the win without playing out best footy is something we will take for sure.

“We have probably lost games where we have played better footy this season… We probably butchered the ball a little bit moving forward and didn’t take the game on like we planned to,” Sutton said on Monday.

Although the Bombers have room for improvement, the glimpses of the side’s A-game that were shown indicated that they will be one of the teams to beat in the home stretch of the season.

“We like to shake the ball around the back and move it out the other side but we weren’t doing that and were just going long down the line.

“We spoke about it at half time and I think we were a bit better at it in the last quarter but for the majority we probably didn’t use the ball we would have liked to.”

Lauderdale became the first team to score over 100 points against Clarence this season, and after dropping two games to the ‘Roos from winnable three-quarter-time positions earlier in the season, Sutton was impressed with how his side managed to run the game out, kicking six goals to two.

“We said going into 3/4 time that it wasn’t finished yet.

“We were pretty up and about but we had to remind ourselves that we had been in that position before (and hadn’t won), so we wanted to finish out strong.”

The Bombers were well-serviced by its stars right across the field in the win, with Tim Mosquito, Josh McGuinness, Phil Bellchambers, Nat Franklin, Haydn Smith and Sutton all continuing their consistent campaigns.

But it was one name that dominated discussion leading into the clash, and the conversations afterwards. Thor Boscott.

Boscott, a key figure in the Bombers’ 2017 campaign, broke his foot in January, has only been back on the training track for the last month, but returned with a bang, kicking three goals as a key figure inside 50.

“He was pretty good, wasn’t he?,” Sutton said of Boscott.

“He was awesome. He would be a massive headache for coaches I’d imagine as he can go up in the air but when it is on the ground he is brutal. He is just awesome to have back in the side.

“He brings other people into the game. When he was back starting training again, his skills were still elite – they hadn’t changed after six months of not playing or training.”

The Bombers, now in fourth spot on the ladder, have a big clash with third-placed Glenorchy at Lauderdale Oval coming up this weekend as they look to crack into the upper rungs of the table.

“If we want to make the top three, we have to keep winning. We want to win every game now and every game is important – we can’t take any game easy and have to finish every game off well.

“We are starting to click and starting to get some players back.

“At the start of the year if you look at our senior team from the grand final we have had 12 different players come in so to find a bit of continuity about where everyone is going to play and their role is important,” Sutton said.