Saturday afternoon brought one of Nick Larkey’s best games since arriving at Arden St, as he kicked four goals in Werribee’s VFL victory against the Northern Blues.
Three of those goals came in a second quarter purple patch, where Larkey was involved everywhere you looked.
“That’s why I love playing footy,” Larkey said of the second quarter.
“When you get on the end of those sorts of runs you feel like nothing can stop you a bit.
“(But) it comes and goes. I was lucky to get on the end of a few nice kicks, kicked straight which helps, and everyone was working together down forward.”
Larkey’s confidence in his outing was echoed by Development Manager Ben Dyer, who was also pleased with the teenager’s game.
“It was highlighted by strong overhead and contested marks, and most pleasingly finished his work off in front of goal, so it was a terrific outing for Nick,” Dyer said.
“He’s trying to work on different ways of getting the ball while he’s developing his body.
“He’s doing work on his contested marking, his ability to body up, but while that’s a work in progress he’s got to find other ways so he’s working on the timing of his leads and positioning around the ground.
“Full credit to him, he does a lot of work during the week watching his vision and out on the track as well.
“It’s good to see him get some reward for it.”
After a series of tightly contested, low scoring games, Saturday was a departure from what had become the norm for Werribee.
33 goals between the two sides meant it was an open, up-and-down affair – a style which Larkey enjoyed.
“I like them (open games) because for me I need to get on my bike and run, I can’t really body up too much.
“Grounds like Ikon (Park), they’re the grounds I like and when we get nice movement you can get out the back, and the defender doesn’t know where you are and you can hit up, you’ve got a whole range of options.”
The open spaces gave Larkey and the rest of the Werribee forwards plenty of space to work in as they battled their way back after a slow start.
“We were down quite heavily in that first quarter and for us to bounce back like that, the second quarter was great and I was lucky enough to get on the end of a few really nice entries," he said.
“The entry wasn’t so great in the first quarter, but in the second, third and fourth it was coming in really nicely which made it easy for me and Maj and the other forwards.”
Werribee has now won six in a row, with its last loss coming all the way back in Round 2.
That was against Footscray, coincidentally the Tigers’ next opponent on Saturday afternoon as part of a double header at Etihad Stadium.
“While it’s good to get the six on the trot, and we’re playing some good footy now, let’s hope we can get the job done next week and beat the team that was the last to beat us,” Larkey said.
