East Sunbury came from behind against Keilor Park to return to the winners’ list in Essendon District Football League division 2.
After five successive losses, the Thunder had to do it the hard way at Goonawarra Recreation Reserve on Saturday.
Goalless in the first quarter, the Thunder then trailed at every break, being 10 points in arrears at the final change. Then four goals to two was enough for the Thunder to squeeze home, 12.7 (79) – 11.10 (76).
Lucas Shaw and Tom Galea kicked four goals apiece for the Thunder, while Jason King booted two. Caine Schofield-Lane and Shaw were named its best players.
Speaking before the match, Thunder coach Steve Grey said the start to the season had been a tough one.
“We are hurting,” he said.
“We should have beaten Jacana and should have also won against Coburg Districts. Against Jacana we were 16 points up at three-quarter time; against Districts it was 10 points up with four or five minutes to go.
“We could have been 3-3, but now we’ve got a fair bit of work to do.”
Grey said one of the biggest issues early in the season was the speed of mental processing during games, something, he said, would come with time.
“We haven’t been up to speed thinking-wise. We’re too slow to react to momentum; we’re not taking first options and too slow with the ball.
“We’re only in our fourth year of football and I think we’re still another two years away from being where we need to be.”
Grey said that with a 2-5 record, achieving consecutive wins in the next few weeks was vital.
“We could have been 3-3, which wouldn’t have been a bad position,” he said. “Now we’ve got matches against three sides in our region on the ladder and I can’t see why we can’t win them all. We need to win against a quality side.”
While the seniors haven’t got the results the coach wanted, the Thunder’s reserves and under-18s are both in the top four.
“So we have plenty of growth,” Grey said. “The seconds are third and the under-18.5s are on top and undefeated.
“We had three under-18.5 players go through the team last week and probably another three or four on Saturday. It’s good for the future of the club.”
This week, the Thunder faces bottom side Burnside Heights.
