FOUR first-gamers and makeshift back six. Oh, and they were playing the pre-season premiership favourite in North Warrnambool Eagles.
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Wins don't come much gutsier than Koroit's on Saturday.
Jake McCosh, Paddy Haberfield, Matthew Bradley and Jamie Lloyd impressed in their maiden senior game, holding their own as the Saints notched up a 11.13 (79) to 11.10 (76) triumph at Bushfield.
"Ideally, against the best team in the comp, you don't want to debut four in the same game," Koroit coach Chris McLaren said.
"All of those boys, we wanted to get in the side, but to bring them in together is just a big ask. We lost four of our key defenders from last week so it was always going to be a bit of a challenge.
Those boys competed really well physically. It was a great eye-opener, it doesn't get much harder than that for those boys.
- Chris McLaren
"Those boys competed really well physically. It was a great eye-opener, it doesn't get much harder than that for those boys. They made some comments about the quarters feeling so much longer when you're coming out of reserves or under 18s footy."
McLaren said he was "really proud" of the quartet.
He said the Saints - the Hampden league's most recent premier after two COVID-19 interrupted seasons - had been disappointed with their most recent showings at Bushfield and wanted to make amends.
Koroit started the brighter of the two sides but the Eagles, coached by assistant Tim Condon in Adam Dowie's absence, stormed home through the second term to carry a six-point lead into the main break.
Goals to forward Will Couch gifted the Saints the lead in the third term and they carried a two point lead into the final change before breaking away late in the last quarter.
"We just wanted to have those little wins and compete. If we get enough of those, we thought it might help us get a big win," he said.
"North have been a very, very good side but we've felt our pressure and work rate haven't been up to it the last couple of times we've played them and that's let us down a bit.
"We just said, 'hey listen, make sure there's no question mark over those non talent-based things'. We knew as long as those things were up we'd give ourselves a good chance."
Condon said his side was lucky to get within three points of a result.
"We fought it out pretty well but they just used the ball a lot better and took away our space," he said.
"We seemed to be kicking down the line a lot out of our back half so was that us not running hard enough, or did they just defend really well? It was probably just a bit of both."
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Nick Ansell
Nick Ansell is a sports journalist at the Warrnambool Standard.
Nick Ansell is a sports journalist at the Warrnambool Standard.
