Belmont Lions co-coach Brent Vermeulen says the chance to enjoy his football was a key reason for playing in the reserves on Saturday.
Vermeulen, in his fourth season in the role alongside Andy Walsgott, made the call last week to drop himself after a slow start to the 2026 season.
“I had a bit of an interrupted pre-season – only really did half of it,” he said.
(It’s) one of those things, working myself back into it… finding a little bit of enjoyment out of it as well.
“I’ve taken football seriously for a pretty long time, and it was actually really good to go down and just have some fun.”
Vermeulen says he has had a groin issue since Round 1 last year that has affected his ability to have the impact he would like.
“I played with it for eight, nine games, and I got up to the Bannockburn game, and it pulled up really sore,” he said.
“I had a few weeks off and had cortisone and stuff.
“It’s been playing up a little bit. I don’t completely know what it is, but that’s the reason why I didn’t do any running or anything at all.
“I’m just working myself back into it now.”
Vermeulen, a former captain of GFNL club St Albans, says he expects his reserves stint to extend into May.
“I haven’t really talked with Andy and the other boys about it too much; I think I’ll keep giving those young kids a go,” he said.
Belmont Lions debuted ex-Grovedale under-18 Chase Anderson and South Barwon product Mason Jolly in the 101-point hiding of Thomson at Winter Reserve.
Leading by 51 points at three-quarter time, the Lions produced an eight-goal burst in the final term, while keeping the winless Tigers goalless.
“It was actually good standing on the sidelines for once and watching; watching it in a different aspect, I guess,” Vermeulen said.
“Sometimes when you’re playing, you don’t really take as much notice of it as you want to, so it was good to watch them.
“We had a bit of a slow start. We’d do the one, two things right and then get that last disposal into the forward line a little bit wrong.
“Last quarter, we really put the foot on the pedal, and off we went.”
X: @krockfootball
