Barwon Heads produced an early-season performance that has likely made the rest of the Bellarine take notice after handing reigning premier Anglesea an 81-point hiding at Howard Harmer Oval.
After conceding the first two goals of the contest to trail by 14 points, the Seagulls clicked into gear, with their elite ball use proving too much for the visitors to contend with, snapping a five-game losing streak against the Roos.
They kicked five of the next six goals in the opening quarter to take a 12-point lead into the first change, before a 6.3 to 2.0 second term gave the home team a 39-point buffer at the main break.
Any thoughts of a fightback from the ‘Seas were quickly snuffed out, with another six-goal term by Barwon Heads putting the game to bed.
Star midfielder Damian McMahon, who has stepped up as co-coach alongside Sam Schaller this year, was at his enthusiastic best, celebrating every goal and inspirational pace of play with his teammates.
“I was just happy… it was a really good effort,” he told K rock Football.
“Stepping into the full coaching role, obviously, I still want to get out there and perform well.
“But just to see all the boys bring on what we’ve been working on all pre-season, it was so good to see.
“I was smiling all day, it was brilliant.”
McMahon would have also been smiling at the performance of Wedderburn recruit and 2016 Footscray VFL premiership player Mitch Jensen.
The half-brother of former Essendon player and current Bombers president Andrew Welsh, who has been given the honour of wearing the No.23 vacated by club great Mitch Herbison, finished with five goals.
“(I) got on the end of a few, I think, and as a team we couldn’t have put a better four quarters together,” he said.
“Really pleased with our effort today, and hopefully we can keep that going for the next couple of weeks because we’ve got a few hard games coming up.”
Anglesea coach Jordan Keras was left to lament his players’ desire.
You don’t want to speak too soon – it’s very early in the season, but we’ve probably just lost our edge just a little bit early on in the season.
“And it’s a hard thing. You want to sort of be honest with our players… I looked around, and they’re disappointed, but they probably didn’t look like they were really shattered out there, which tells me that we’re probably just going through the motions a little bit early on.
“And look at results in this season, you know, anyone can beat anybody.
“So you don’t roll into any game thinking you can just breeze through it.
“And, if you’re a little bit off, which we were a lot off, you get exposed pretty quickly.”
Barwon Heads will look to keep its unbeaten run intact when it meets Geelong Amateur at KFC Oval on Friday night, with Anglesea at home to Torquay on Sunday.
X: @krockfootball
