By Marcus Uhe
There aren’t many easy contests in the Outer East’s Division One, says Berwick Springs coach Rod Benstead.
His Titans have learned that lesson the hard way in the last month, with a hard-fought win over Officer and consecutive losses to Emerald and Healesville, before rebounding with a win against Belgrave on Saturday.
They rediscovered their offensive fire power against the Magpies, kicking 18.13 121 to 5.13 43 to win by 78 points.
Led by Ty Ellison’s six, as one of 12 individual goal-kickers, they kicked six goals in each of the first two quarters and another five in the last, flexing their muscles over their struggling opponents in a team effort that had not quite been at the required level in recent weeks.
Riley Hillman starred off halfback as he rediscovers his 2022 form that saw him named in the Division One Team of the Year and Chris Johnson was welcomed back with open arms after missing the last two through injury.
Hayden Stagg continues to show why he was such a critical piece of Narre Warren’s Premier Division conquest last season and finished just outside the top 10 of the Shane Smith Medal voting as best player in the competition.
For Benstead, the process of returning to winning ways started on the track.
“I think sometimes you’ve got to reassess training standards and some of the basics, we sort of had fallen off a little bit and we made training a bit physical and harder,” he said.
“It sets the bar a bit higher and we’ve got some buy-in.
“We know we’ve got talent but that will only get you so far, the hard work has to be done.
“I know its cliché and easy to say, but sometimes you play the way you train and I didn’t think the training was there.
“We pressed them and we were really looking for a response.
“I said from the start, it’s a pretty even competition and you don’t have to be off by much to get a bit of a wake-up call.
“You do learn a lot in your losses from the experience, but now to get the response was good and we’ve got a big game after the bye, which is fantastic for the club.”
Tom Nelson continues to turn heads, taking another highlight-worthy mark while standing on the shoulders of his Belgrave opponent.
The centre-half-forward in last year’s Team of the Year has been deployed further up the field this year to add strings to his bow, and it’s caught the attention of recruiters at higher levels.
“We played him at full-forward last year and we’re playing him as a hybrid half-forward, on-ball role this year to keep developing him,” Benstead said.
“He works really hard, I think he’s training at Coburg one night a week.
“If you can take mark and goal of the week most weeks, there’s something about you that clubs and recruiters love.
“He’s a really humble kid too who works really hard, there’s lots of traits to like.”
The Titans now enter a tricky period of the season where they’ll play just once in the next four weeks.
Round five is being played as a split round, with Emerald and Healesville being a stand-alone fixture next weekend.
Benstead’s men will then tackle Seville before the fixtured bye, and then the week off for the King’s Birthday long weekend.
It comes at not a bad time, affording extra time for the exciting Blake Simondson to slowly return to football after a preseason foot operation, and ruckman Jayden Bubb to shake his shoulder injury sustained against Healesville.
Simondson is expected to play against Seville this week and add another dimension to the prodigious midfield crop led by Stagg, Johnson and Aidan Nelson.
Upon the completion of round six, the Titans will have played each side at least once, the first side to do so in Division One, as the last to weather their bye weekend.
While the season is still awakening after a long off-season, there’s already a logjam forming between second and fifth, with Healesville, Berwick Springs, Officer and Seville all snapping at the heels of the undefeated Emerald.
The runner-up to Gembrook Cockatoo last year, Seville, bringing up the rear in that quadrant, reflects the evenness of the field.
Reflecting on the previous two weeks, Benstead believes the teams that do the basics and earn the opportunity will be rewarded the longer the campaign goes.
“There’s no real surprises there, it’s a good competition with good teams that are pretty even,” he said.
“That’s why it gets back to working harder than other teams and doing all the little things.
“The premier data we get now on all clubs is pretty good so there won’t be many surprises.
“Last year Seville beat us by 60 points the first time we played them, then 30 points, and then we beat them.
“It’s a long year and you can improve and you’ve got to improve, so that’s probably some of the key messaging that you just can’t be satisfied in this competition.
“We give ourselves every opportunity.
“We think we can keep improving, we don’t think we‘re playing our best.”
Division One’s other clash saw Officer register their second win, this time over Hallam by 93 points thanks to seven goals to recruit Mark Seedsman.
The Hawks got the jump on Officer early at Starling Road to hold a minor advantage at quarter time, but eight goals to nil in the second quarter quickly had the ‘Roos back in the driver’s seat.
It was their second consecutive score of 20 goals, having done the same against Seville in their last outing before the bye.
Things appear to be clicking under Danny Charles, having won their last two and putting up a valiant performance against Berwick Springs in round two, where they dominated patches of the second half with their run and carry against a premiership fancy.
For Hallam, Adam Nekic continues to be a valuable addition, while the Sharlassian pair of Harry and Jack both hit the scoreboard.