Winchelsea coach Ben Moloney has labelled Saturday night’s 33-point win over Belmont Lions at Eastern Reserve as the club’s best in his 20 games in charge.
Led by five goals by Jordan Gould, the Blues outscored the Lions nine goals to three after an even first quarter to claim an 11.5 (71) to 5.8 (38) result.
“We talked about belief in what we’re doing; in our systems and what we’ve been trying to coach over the pre-season,” Moloney said.
“And I think last night showed that when we do play the way we want to play, it actually works.
“Last night was as good as I’ve seen, and that’s as good a win as I’ve been involved in since I’ve been there.
“I think it definitely reinforces to the boys that we’re on the right track and the group we’ve got is the group that can take us to where we want to go to.”
Gould’s performance highlighted how much Winchelsea missed the GDFNL’s joint leading goalkicker from 2024 last year.
He finished with 55 majors before heading to Tantanoola. Cam Primmer was the Blues’ best in 2025 with 42 – of which 27 came in the final seven rounds.
“Funnily enough, I had a couple of boys mention to me about just how much we needed him last year,” Moloney said
“We still had key forwards that presented and gave us options, but Gouldy not only gets on the end of goals, but he crashes packs, and he takes the best and second best defender, which gives our other forwards an opportunity to get on the end of it.
“We would have loved to keep him last year, but you know, to have him back this year, with his football ability, but also his on-field leadership and voice has been something that we’ve also lacked, and it’s been amazing to have.”
Moloney said it was a struggle to keep under the limit of players that a club can nominate among their best.
“We asked if we could put more in,” he said.
“A win like that is definitely isn’t smaller group of players playing well.”
However, Moloney did praise the efforts of the Parish brothers, Cassidy, Indi and Fin, Sam Adams, Adam Walsh, and captain Jordan Huff, who kept Lions talisman Ben Evans to one goal.
Winchelsea will be confident of claiming consecutive wins when it hosts Corio at Eastern Reserve in a night match on Anzac Day.
However, the Blues are likely to be without South Barwon recruit Damien Hewson, who suffered ligament damage in his shoulder following a tackle by three opponents.
X: @krockfootball
