Bayside sticking firm with young charges

by Jordan Lim 0

Despite losing a number of players to injuries, which has seen the club slip to seventh on the NPLW ladder, Bayside United manager Graham Dudley has refuted claims he’ll look to sign players mid-season.

Speaking after a 2-1 defeat to Box Hill United on Sunday night – their third straight scoreline in the league and fourth in total – Dudley has reiterated the faith that he has in his squad, despite fielding calls from players looking to ply their trade at Bayside.

“We’re absolutely sticking with the squad,” Dudley said.

“There’s one other that’s coming in that we’ve had on our listing for some time, who is Jaimee Dudley. She’ll be coming in June to reinforce things.

“There’s phone calls and things that have been potted around, with players not happy where they are but we have no interest. We’re a unit and we stick together as a squad.

“We are having to look at the younger side of things. Jamie Brown came up, she’s a very solid performer. Bronte [James] is obviously another one, we look at the backline and three members are under 18.

“Robes [Emma Robers] in the middle is another under 18. The excuse of saying we’re a young squad is a simple one to use, but that’s not where we are. We are having to look all over the place to fill the gaps.”

Despite not getting the required results in recent weeks, Dudley’s outfit has played patches of good football without stringing together a 90 minute performance.

A stunning solo effort from Courtney Conrad in injury time saw Bayside win the second 45, having earlier slipped to a 2-0 lead heading into the half-time break.

“It’s frustrating, another 2-1, another win in the second half, another performance where we have to go in and re-check ourselves is not the nicest place to be in at the moment,” he said.

“That type of game was extraordinarily frustrating to be in – the performance of players was just below their normal expectations and what we’re used to. Theres an element of frustration there psychologically there.

“Physically, we worked hard but where’s the thing to fix? It’s just that building block of being a team. It’s one of the most obvious parts that we’re missing at the moment.”

He’s targeting the match-up against Bulleen Lions in a fortnight’s time as the yardstick for his young charges, who were well beaten 3-0 in the reverse fixture, that being the only loss to come by more than a goal so far this season.

“There’s a long term plan at Bayside that goes week-by-week,” he said.

“We also made the very clear statement that we’re learning in Round 1 – up to the Bulleen game in a few weeks time – we’ll be looking around and learning to see what we need to do to improve.

“Now it’s time to step up and improve.”

Photo: Steve Pinirou Photography