While the sides were hard to separate early, a fourth-quarter Bellarine blitzkrieg had bomb after bomb dropped on the host — dealing damage Josh Waight’s men simply could not recover from.
Reflecting on an undesirable start to the season, assistant coach Matt Bartlett had plenty to take away from the round two loss.
“We definitely started a lot better than the week before — if we had started that well in round one, we would have won that game for sure,” Bartlett said.
“They ran away with it in the last quarter and were really making their shots. There were a few heartbreakers at the end.
“Obviously from a negative perspective, that is two games dropped from two.
“But at the moment it is about getting some continuity in the group and organising our offence how we want to play for the season — in that regard it was a lot more positive than the week before.”
Having identified rapid ball movement as a key factor for success, Shepparton started hot.
According to Bartlett, the Gators’ bigger bodies threw their weight around and caused headaches for the Storm in the opening exchanges and failed to relent throughout.
But as the clock wound down, Bellarine came up big, twisting the knife to run away with the points.
Result aside, Bartlett praised the efforts of his side and thanked supporters for creating some noise at Shepparton Sports Stadium.
“Our bigs battled hard throughout the game, which I think is going to be a bit of a theme to this year’s competition,” he said.
“Sam Beks and Dylan Wayman put in good shifts and Ian Wright played a pivotal role coming off the bench.
“Despite the result, it was great to have a home crowd there supporting an awesome local group and we hope to see them continuing to support us throughout the season.”
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