Despite just four wins for the season and an average losing margin of 53 points, Ocean Grove co-coaches Dave Farrell and Nick Bourke believe there is cause for optimism at Ray Menzies Oval going into the 2026 season.
Like many other teams, the Grubbers were decimated by injuries this season and at times struggled to field even close to a full line-up. At one stage they had 44 players to choose from in the seniors and reserves.
Add the fact that the side is still very young and inexperienced and it’s probably not surprising that the club finished bottom in a 10-team competition.
Wins against finals bound Anglesea and Torquay, the latter coming on the final day of the home and away season on Saturday in a monumental upset and a better back half of the season were the highlights of a disappointing year.
“Super mixed feelings about the season,” Farrell said.
“We’re not an excuse-driven club and never will be. For a whole range of reasons we couldn’t get any continuity week to week and our performances ebbed and flowed as a result.
“To have beaten four of nine sides and two in the top five gives us some validation we are not a long way behind but the reality is as a club we need to do everything a bit better than we have been.
“Despite our position as a senior footy program the club is buzzing with energy, our junior footballers and netballers are super well represented in the finals and we look forward to sharing in their success.”
One area the Grubbers must look to improve is their scoring power. They averaged just 57 points per game although that improved slightly in the second half of the season from 52 to 62.
“There has definitely been a momentum shift in the group over the last month and we addressed it throughout Saturday that it was time we see results from it,” Farrell said.
“After the game we spoke really briefly but directly about the players will drive the speed of our growth and how much we have in us going into 2026.”
Playing co-coach Bourke said despite the poor win-loss ratio, morale had remained high all season.
“It certainly was a challenging year for many different reasons, injuries being one of them,” he said.
“The group were incredible all year in not letting results bring the feeling down at training and around the club. We felt all year we were not far away and we saw that come to life yesterday. All credit to the playing group to keep wanting to improve and stick to the process.
“The season probably from a win-loss point of view didn’t go how we may have pictured it going, but I think again as we saw yesterday we are going to be better off for it in the future. The group coming through are so hungry and eager to learn and as challenging as it got at times, being able to get games into plenty of our younger players will hold the club in a really good place next year and beyond.”
The win against Torquay, by 14 points at McCartney Oval on Saturday, was Ocean Grove’s best of the season. Rory Phillips led the way with four goals in the 11.7(73) to 8.11(59) win.
“That was our most complete game,” Farrell said.
“There were lots of periods Torquay had momentum but it was on the back of their ability and some adjustments they made in-game rather than any lapse in concentration or drifting away from our plan from our guys which was awesome to watch.
“Turning a result from earlier in the year around by nearly 20 goals takes a lot of character and belief. Internally we knew the boys have a huge amount of both so the most pleasing thing for the coaching group was that it was there for everyone to see on Saturday. I imagine externally they earned a whole lot of respect.”
