From www.localfooty.com.au
Reported by Conor Ryan
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DAMIAN Carroll gave his troops a tick for their efforts despite falling just short of the ladder-leaders at North Port Oval on Saturday.
The Box Hill coach watched a valiant effort, but it wasn't a match-winning one, as Port Melbourne continued its recent domination of the Hawks.
Box Hill gave up a four-goal advantage in the first quarter and had to battle to stay in touch with the Borough.
The Hawks fought back to make it a contest and then fought back again from a late deficit to almost snatch what would have been a magnificent victory.
The Borough had looked home, holding a 15-point advantage deep in the final term, but late goals to Broc McCauley and skipper Daniel Pratt took the match down to the wire.
But, the reigning premiers held on to keep their hold on top spot, 11.8 (74) to 10.11 (71).
Carroll said he had mixed feelings about the result.
"It's never as much fun when you lose," he said.
"We were pretty happy with most areas of the game. We sometimes didn't have all our set-ups correct.
"A big positive was our ability to put pressure on them and make sure we kept them to a score we could kick.
"To lead for a quarter and a half against one of the best teams in the competition, I thought we could take a lot of positives out of that."
Pratt, the Hawks' leading goal-kicker, added three more to his season total while Amos Frank kicked two.
Carroll highlighted the Murphys, Xavier and Tom, as the Hawks' best, while Matt Jones continued his excellent form.
This weekend brings another bye for Box Hill, the last in a season seemingly chock-full of them, ahead of the Hawks' final-round clash with Bendigo.
That trip to Queen Elizabeth Oval will, in all likelihood, decide whether the Hawks finish seventh or eighth on the ladder, with ninth-placed North Ballarat needing a percentage miracle to overtake Box Hill.
Sandringham and Williamstown loom as potential elimination final opponents.
While the scouts will be out over the next two weeks, Carroll said he would be focusing his attention on Bendigo.
"We don't want to take losing form into finals," he said.
"We've been quite good over the last few weeks but we didn't win on the weekend.
"From our perspective, we want to try and knock over Bendigo and focus our energy on the finals series.
"We need to be striving to get our best performance possible out there."
