A seven-goal third quarter was crucial in Bell Post Hill opening the Geelong & District Football League season with a win against East Geelong at Richmond Oval.
Trailing by 14 points at half-time, the Panthers piled on 7.5 in the third term to take a 26-point lead into the final break.
They held on despite the Eagles booting four goals to one in the final stanza to win 12.12(84) to 11.7(73) on Saturday April 6.
Co-coach Ash Witney said his side didn’t change much at the break, but was cleaner with its disposal.
“We were a little bit cleaner around the footy,” he said.
“I think contested work was really good. We’ve got a lot of blokes who love the hard stuff and are contested bulls. We just spoke about it at half time, maybe just letting one go in and one go out.
“East Geelong are very good at holding out of the contest and getting that overlap with handball, so that was probably hurting us a little bit on the outside. We’d win on the inside, but then once the ball tumbled outside of the contest, they were off to the races and are a very, very skillful footy team.”
Witney said his side’s fitness levels were the result of a gruelling preseason.
“We spoke hugely to the boys about this and I think that we’re the fittest football team and that’s what our mantra was all preseason,” he said.
“I mean the fittest football team, not the fittest running team, not the strongest team, but the fittest football team. We’ve put a lot of work in since November.”
After losing a plethora of former premiership players in the off-season, the Panthers are a new-look outfit, but have not dwelt on the losses.
“It was probably a little bit of an emotional win,” Witney said.
“We spoke of that a fair bit early on in the piece that this is their footy club now and their time to take the footy club forward. And now it’s these boys’ turn to lead the way and lead the footy club.”
Bell Post Hill takes on reigning premiers Inverleigh at home in round two.
“We’ll look out for a few of their prime movers, but we’ll just worry about our team and as long as they bring 100 percent effort 100 percent of the time,” Witney said.
“We think if we can play our style of footy for long enough, we’ll be in with a chance to win at the end of the game.”
Harry McIntyre booted four goals for the Panthers and Daniel Maher kicked three while for East Geelong, Austin Mulvahil was on target with five.
Brody Washington made his debut for Bell Post Hill, having never played a game of Australian Rules football before.
“He’s just a kid, has a crack and he puts his head over the footy and is team first,” Witney said.
GEELONG WEST defeated a plucky North Geelong by five points, 12.10(82) to 12.7(77). Matthew Ianelli booted five goals for the Giants while Blake Miller did the same at the other end for North Geelong.
WERRIBEE CENTRALS knocked off Corio by 16 points, 15.9(99) to 13.5(83) with Josh McDonald booting four goals in a best afield performance while Joel Bennett kicked three and was superb for the Devils.
THOMSON prevailed in a close one against Winchelsea even though it kicked poorly for goal, eventually winning 10.21(81) to 11.5(71). Onballer Charley Donohue was best on ground.
BANNOCKBURN defeated Anakie, 12.13(85) to 5.6(36) with Kieran Dulton looking set for a big season with four goals. Former Bulldog and Cat AFL player Luke Dahlhaus was best for Anakie, which showed enough to suggest it will improve this season.
NOAH Houtsma was huge for Belmont Lions in their 15.20(110) to 10.11(71) win against Inverleigh. Belmont booted 12 goals after half time.
