Weekly Times | Euroa sealed its first 3-0 start to the Goulburn Valley Football League season in a decade with a three-goal win against Seymour yesterday.
The Pies led the Lions at every change and continued their perfect start to the season, winning 16.14 (110) to 13.14 (92).
Euroa was going for its third straight Anzac Day win against Seymour, defeating the Lions by one point in 2013 and 14 points last year.
Euroa started the 2005 season with four straight wins and went on to play in that year’s grand final, but lost to Seymour.
It hasn’t played in a grand final since.
Both Euroa and Seymour have downed Mansfield this year, and the Magpies last week overcame last year’s runner-up, Benalla, by 10 points.
But Euroa playing coach Nathan Gilliland, who bagged five goals yesterday, said the side did not dwell on that success long.
“We were pretty quick to move on. It was a great win against Benalla but we were pretty switched on again on Tuesday night at training,” he said.
Gilliland said as well as retaining its local players, the club had added some exciting talent like dual SANFL premiership player Brett Zorzi from the Ovens and Murray league, and John Ikupu from the Ellinbank and District league.
With a leadership group led by captain Andrew Bell, Gilliland believed now the Magpies needed a “little bit of luck”.
Magpies Ben Barker and Adam Tarrant were singled out for praise from their coach for the jobs they did on Saad Saad and Tim Bongetti, respectively. The pair were kept to five goals between them.
Bongetti was named best afield for Seymour.
Gilliland said Euroa’s forward pressure was making a big difference this year.
“We’ve got a belief in our brand of footy, we’ve been working on that over the preseason and it’s a bit easier when everyone understands where they need to be,” Gilliland said.
Neither side made finals last year, the Magpies falling into eighth place with five wins for the season and Seymour into 10th with four.