Top 10 in sights of bold BFL
Pressure sends Wimmera packing
THE Bellarine Football League has its sights set on a move into country Victoria’s top 10 after a comfortable win over Wimmera.
In the battle between numbers 15 and 16 in AFL Victoria’s Community Championship rankings, the higher-ranked BFL secured a 37-point win to climb the interleague ladder.
Coach Mark Hildebrandt is determined to lift the league into single figures.
He said there was a greater “buy-in” from players this season, with the BFL able to draw on the likes of Josh Finch, Jordan Erskine, James Linton and Adam Donohue.
“It’s something to build on,” he said after Saturday’s win at Horsham City Oval.
“We haven’t been able to put our best side on the ground for a while because people didn’t buy in, but now they are.
“In the last couple of years it’s been a bit harder, but with the salary cap and points system, the clubs are using the interleague forum to represent their clubs and their league.
“I’ve had coaches ring me for the first time and say, ‘Have you thought about this bloke?’ and usually you don’t hear from the coaches because they don’t want their players to get injured.
“Blokes are putting their hands up and our strong averages around 22-23 years of age, so we’re very young.
“We had Mitch Chafer, who is only 19, and Wade McSparron, who is 19 or 20, and they were both really good. We didn’t have a bad player, so we’ve got a young list that’s going to be around for a while now.
“If we could make the top 10 in the next few years it would be fantastic.”
Hildebrandt lauded his side’s intensity and pressure, which eventually broke the will of Wimmera, kicking five goals to one in the final term to win 12.11 (83) to 6.10 (46).
“The effort was absolutely fantastic,” Hildebrandt said.
“We’re a pretty young group, but their attack on the footy and their ability to stay in the game was pleasing.
“In the second quarter, we started to open them up and really run. We had a core of about 12 blokes running through the midfield, so there were signs that we’d run away with the game but we couldn’t quite kick straight.
“In the third quarter, we missed three real easy ones and they got the game back to even, but in the last quarter our boys lifted.
“Because they’re so young, they just bounced up from every contest and their run and spread was fantastic.
“They got tired and we score quite easily. We should’ve won by a lot more, to be quite honest.”
Finch, Linton, Pat Kelleher, Blake Sutterby, Regan Grimwood and Cam O’Leary ran Wimmera off its legs in the midfield, receiving silver service from big man Andrew Jarvis.
“He went really well,” Hildebrandt said of Jarvis.
“It was not just his ruck work, but his body work and he was good with his hands.
“I used Jackson Bews in the ruck as well and he’s not even six foot. He’s my back-up ruckman and we played a lot like Richmond with a small ruckman and our midfielders put a lot of body pressure on and manned up.”
Anglesea spearhead Jordan Erskine also had a day out, bagging six majors.
“We tried not to bob it into him because they were double-teaming him,” Hildebrandt said. “We started putting the ball in on the angles, and when we put it in one-on-one, he was really strong.
“He missed a couple of easy ones, too, he should’ve kicked a few more, but he played well.
“We ran forward in waves, so it was coming in pretty quick to him. He outbodied his opponent easily in the end.”