YARRAVILLE-SEDDON is ready to dispel the popular opinion that it is a slick football unit with a soft underbelly.
The Eagles vowed to instill a harder edge when new coach David Connell took over in the preseason and went some way to shedding the ‘soft’ tag with a 96-point demolition of the traditionally physical Parkside Magpies in the Western Region Football League division 2 at Yarraville Oval on Saturday.
“Yarraville-Seddon has probably been tagged with being a bit soft and a real good outside running side,” Connell told the Weekly.
“I know when I coached against them, it was something that I used to target.
“The group was pretty honest with themselves when we sat down and had an open forum over pre-season; it was definitely a tag we wanted to get rid of.
“We knew Parkside were going to hit us pretty hard and we not only stood up to them, we probably led the way in that area.”
The Eagles had to withstand an early onslaught from the Magpies.
That lasted just minutes, after which it was all one-way traffic with the Eagles dominant.
The Eagles were able to keep the inaccurate visitors goalless to half-time and were in total command with a 39-point advantage.
Connell saw the first 10 minutes of the third quarter as the game-defining period in which his Eagles slammed on eight goals in as many minutes to show they have not lost their ability to score goals in quick succession.
“We thought the five or so minutes after half-time were pretty crucial,” he said.
The game opened up for the Eagles on the back of the bullocking work from inside midfielders Shane Barry and Beau Guest.
They fished the ball out to the running brigade, who used it well and had a plethora of targets, with Marc Hussey, Adam Baker, Sherif Mohamed, Michael Volpi, Chris Topalidis and Dean Dorazio booting three goals apiece.
That kind of depth is going to cause more than a few headaches for opposition coaches this season. “On our day we have six or seven blokes that can kick a bag and that is one of our strengths,” Connell said.
The Eagles’ new-found attitude was typified in one act of bravery by young Kieran Pearce.
“There was one contest in the third quarter where he was against five of them and he beat them all,” Connell said enthusiastically.
Half-back Josh Rayson and back pocket Jason Compton were similarly fearless in their approach and were selfless performers.
The Magpies disappointed after starting their season with a surprise win over Wyndhamvale.
