By Marcus Uhe
Both Officer and Berwick Springs walked away from Saturday’s Outer East Division One contest embracing the positives, despite only one side pocketing the four points.
Having fallen behind in the second quarter, Officer mounted a valiant second half comeback, but ultimately fell 15 points short at Starling Road, 12.8 80 to 14.11 95.
“I think it’s good to win games like that,” Berwick Springs coach Rod Benstead said.
“Sure there’s a lot of things we can work on, but to come away, we were a little bit hamstrung with rotations and lost a few players early, but credit to the boys for fighting it out.
“Mine was a positive message and I was really proud of their efforts today.”
Mark Seedsman kicked the opening goal of the game with Officer embracing the fast dry conditions and moving the ball well out of the backline.
Once they advanced to halfway, however, their ball movement came unstuck.
Much of the first half belonged to the visitors, whose bigger bodies around the contest and at either end of the ground began to flex their muscle.
Star imports Hayden Stagg and Chris Johnson combined for one goal in the opening term, and Ty Ellison was proving a handful for the undersized Officer backline.
Stagg split his time between the midfield and the forward line and simply looks a class above much of the competition, but Johnson’s influence was limited after the first quarter having succumbed to injury.
Compared to Officer, their ball movement was faster and more direct, with prominent key forwards in Ellison, Braydn Hoewel and Kayden Buselli to aim for ahead of the ball.
A flurry of Titans’ goals late in the quarter, including one to Jacob Flannery after the half-time siren, really took the wind out of the Kangaroos’ sails, as Berwick Springs headed to half time with momentum and a 34-point lead.
Things didn’t get much better for the home side as the Titans immediately extended their advantage upon the resumption of play.
Stagg won the centre clearance and kicked long, with the ball eventually finding Dysan Morris, who converted from a tight angle while being pushed in the back.
Their size dominance was best displayed in one piece of play in where they took the ball the length of the ground with a series of kicks and marks, beginning with ruck Josh Mackenzie at half back and finished by Ellison with a goal after a strong contested mark.
Halfway through the quarter, momentum completely shifted.
Anthony Bernardo went to work in the middle of the ground, and the silky smooth skills of wingman Antonio Quach came to the fore, playing slightly more forward of centre and entrusted with the crucial kick into their forward line.
Quach kicked two goals himself, and suddenly the ‘Roos appeared to have a new lease on life.
They were running and working for each other, chaining handballs and using the corridor on nearly every occasion.
They say fortune favours the brave, and when a Seedsman kick off the ground goes 30 metres and hits his skipper Brent Moloney lace-out, the blue and white knew things were going in their favour.
Having finished the quarter by kicking a handful of goals in a row, Officer hit the three-quarter-time huddle with all the momentum.
Before meeting with their respective line coaches, Bernardo and the leaders rallied the troops with a players-only meeting to consolidate what had worked in that previous half-hour.
While still behind by 28 points, the margin belied the feel of the contest at Starling Road.
It was evident that Berwick Springs were bereft of answers, and were struggling to halt their opponents’ charge which Benstead addressed vehemently at three-quarter-time.
The first goal of the last term was always going to be decisive, and Officer struck twice.
Seedsman smothered an attempted clearing kick in the goal-square and won a free kick for a high tackle when his opponent’s desperation to rectify the error was too vigorous.
The margin had been reduced to 15 points and Berwick Springs were desperate for a spark.
A free-kick in the centre circle for something off the ball was majorly advantageous, with Hoewel the beneficiary of an easy centre clearance that broke a run of Officer goals.
The two sides then traded majors down the stretch, but Officer struggled to broach the two-kick barrier as the Titans held them at arms-length.
Had the game continued for another 10 minutes, Officer’s speed and vigour may have carried them over the line.
But ultimately the second quarter cost them dearly, as coach Danny Charles said post-game.
“In the second quarter our effort just wasn’t there,” he said.
“A few decisions didn’t go our way, which the boys got hung up on.
“I’m not one to worry about umpiring decisions, so it frustrates me when they come off and all they’re worried about is how unfair the umpiring is.
“It was something that they’ve got to get out of their head; if they have a decision go against them, they just keep playing.
“I think we did that in the second half, we stopped worrying about what was out of our control and just played football, and I think we got a better result because of that.”
Rather than lay claim to a tactical masterstroke at the long break, he simplified the shift in momentum to work-rate and gelling with one-another.
“It was purely getting them to play our game-style and asking them for a bit more effort, and them doing as they were told,” Charles said.
“I thought our midfield started to work a little bit harder with Anthony Bernardo and Luke Smaluch in there.
“I thought Harry Dean across that halfback line, it was good to have him back and he’s only going to get better each week.
“The shift of Dan Edwards out of the midfield and into the backline gave us a lot of drive out of there, and adding Sam Hoghton to the line-up this week was a real positive for us.
“It was frustrating, they’re a good side, but we played really well.
“I thought we made a lot of mistakes in the first quarter but I thought we moved the ball not too bad.
“Being a new team and learning a new game-style, it’s definitely (glass) half-full.”
Benstead believes it was in the middle of the ground where the tide turned in the home side’s favour.
“I think they got a little bit of centre clearance dominance and you get one and you start moving forward,” he said.
“It is hard to stop and you start talking about putting one back and thinking ‘how do I stop it?’, but I thought we had to kick goals in the last quarter and you keep the belief in the boys.
“Yes, games are going to change like that but if you can find a way to win, it builds that camaraderie and builds trust within the group that, when it gets hard, you can nail it down.
“I think it was important to get a win.”
While playing the long game, Benstead was quick to add some perspective to the context of the victory.
“We’ve got plenty to work on, and I say each week, ‘this is a marathon this year’ and you roll up your sleeves each week and look to get better,” he said.
“I think it’s exciting to have a 2-0 start.
“Last year we were 0-3 and you feel like you’re chasing the whole year and you’re trying to find that connection.
“But I feel like we’re well-ahead of where we were last year when we got into a preliminary final, so now you just keep working hard and trying to get better.”
Quach was awarded best-afield by the umpires, and was presented with a medal by former club President and long-time member Barry O’Loughlin in the post-game ceremony.
Seedsman finished with five goals for the home side, while Ellison kicked four goals for Berwick Springs in the battle of the key forwards.
Around the grounds in Division One, the potency of Emerald’s offence was on display again with a 45-point win over Seville.
After registering 38 shots on goal last week in their victory over Officer, they had another 36 this week against last year’s runner-up, killing the game in the first half with a 49-point lead at the long break.
Callum White kicked a second-consecutive bag of four, while David Johnson and Lachlan Hoye kicked two each.
While in Hallam, the Hawks fell 14 points short of their first victory in the Outer East competition, going down to Belgrave at home.
It would have been the ideal way to christen Hallam Rec Reserve’s first game in the competition, but the Magpies had the last call in the battle of the birds.
Gabriel Bonicelli and Jonathan Daly kicked three each for the home side.
Their quest for their first win will have to wait another week, as they have been scheduled the bye in round three.
Elsewhere, Berwick Springs host Emerald in a top-of-the-table clash, while Officer head to Seville and Healesville go to Belgrave.
