Herald Sun | THE coach of a footy club that copped a 429-point belting on the weekend says he is proud of his players, who never gave up despite the opposition slamming through 69 goals.
Central Highlands Football League powerhouse Gordon Football Club booted 69.22 (426) to Smythesdale's 1.1 (7) in an extremely lopsided game between two teams at opposite ends of the ladder on Saturday.
Smythesdale (formerly known as Illabrook Football Club) kicked its lone goal in the first quarter and added just one more score for the rest of the match — a behind in the third quarter — while opposition forward Steven Nicholson kicked 19 goals on his own.
But despite the avalanche of goals going the other way, Smythesdale coach Steve Fry said his inexperienced side didn't stopped trying and had reasons to be positive after showing improvement this season.
"We had nothing to stop it. The guys tried hard all day and they never gave up until the final siren, which is a credit to them," Fry said.
"The Gordon side was a top side, they'll probably be flag favourites, and we went in missing probably eight of our top senior blokes ... through injury. We just haven't got the depth there at the minute to cover these blokes when they're missing."
"We're a young side, there's a lot of inexperience there. Going into the game we knew it was going to be a tough day. We normally play a few of our under 18 kids who've got a fair bit of talent but we rested them this week as well, just knowing it was going to be a pretty tough day at the office."
Smythesale player Brayden Crocker made a passionate post in support of his club on Facebook.
"If yous all seen the effort and heart we put in to the club you all wouldn't be so quick to judge," Crocker wrote.
"Most (of) our team is 22 and under and a great group of blokes winning isn't everything and the score bord (sic) don't always tell the whole story I'd rather lose with great loyal blokes then play with guys that think they are better then everyone, the team that beat us had 3 ex afl players and we had most our snr side out also 3 years ago Gordon was in our position and now they are one of the flag favorites so don't see how people can judge us on something every team goes through."
Despite the scoreline, Fry said there were reasons to be positive about the reason of the season.
"The result on Saturday was obviously pretty devastating for the club, but in saying that, the results we've had we've actually improved this season compared to last year.
We've taken some small steps forward ann improved our losing margins this year by around 10 to 15 goals, on average," he said.
Smythesdale lost its opening five games of the season by an average of 110 points.
The blowout margins in some local football games was a glaring example of the inequality that exists between cashed-up teams and smaller clubs, Fry said.
"It's just so hard to compete on that side of things. You've got some clubs spending a couple of hundred thousand dollars each year, and we're trying to run on around 50. It's just a matter of getting sponsors and a bit of work off-field is going to go a long way. As you know these days the money talks, and unless you've got it the players won't come to you."
Fry said Smythesdale was focused on the future and would continue to build on a new game plan while developing a strong presence in the league's junior competitions.
"We've got a fairly strong junior culture throughout the club. Our 18s should be playing finals this ear and our 15s played finals last year. There's probably not a great deal of junior kids there that are in the seniors at the minute, only the guys that are coming up from the 18s this year."
"As long as we can keep our head afloat at the minute, hopefully in the next couple of years we can turn it around."
"We're just going to keep trying to improve on the things we've been working on. We've got a new game plan this year and it has worked for us so far up until Saturday. The improvements were there for the first four or five rounds."
"As long as we can keep cutting the margins down from last year for the rest of this season, then we'll probably be pretty happy and think that we have gone forward, despite what happened on Saturday."