Surf Coast has produced a stunning 165-point turnaround to record its first Bellarine senior football win, beating Portarlington by 17 points at Portarlington Recreation Reserve this afternoon, 15.12 (102) to 13.7 (85).
Hammered by 148 points by Torquay on debut on Easter Saturday, coach Trent Rogers says the Suns headed into the clash with the Demons with the belief they could claim the four points.
“One of the key points of communication from myself to the group is that my commitment to the group is: I want them to enjoy their footy, and part of enjoying footy is winning,” Rogers said.
“I’m committing that I’ll back them in, from Round 1 all the way through.
“And I said that to them before the game. The key point is that we believe in ourselves. We believe in each other. We believe in our process because last week, our process and structures essentially went out the window.
“We went completely away from it. I firmly believe that, last week, we didn’t show the best version of ourselves.
“But today’s response was great, especially because it was a bit of a seesawing game.”
Surf Coast trailed by 17 points at three-quarter time after the Demons kicked four goals to two in the third quarter.
“It would have been very easy for the boys to think, ‘Oh, you know what? At some point, it could have gotten that little bit too hard to win, and you accept a three, four, or five-goal loss.
“And everyone outside the playing group thinks that’s a much better effort and wants to congratulate us on that.
“But the boys just kept on, contest to contest. They just had that belief, and that there was just a lot of grit and determination to win a game of football, and that was really great to see.”
The Flanigan brothers, Dylan and Tyler, were standouts for Surf Coast, while former Ocean Grove best-and-fairest Luke Cartelli kicked four goals, including three in the final term.
Grovedale recruit Tommy Stephen was important with four goals of his own, while the inclusions of former Geelong and North Melbourne player Aaron Black and ex-East Geelong star Tim Lee were important.
“First emotion is definitely excitement,” Rogers said.
“For myself, probably a bit of a relief in there as well, to be honest.
When the final siren went, ‘Wow,’ win one’s done, and hopefully it’s the first of plenty to come.’
“It was a solid response to what they went through last week.”
The only negative for Surf Coast was a head knock suffered by Geelong VFL-listed Hunter Gottschling before half-time.
With the Suns having the bye next week, if he progresses through the concussion protocol without setbacks, he will miss only the Round 4 clash with Queenscliff.
X: @krockfootball
