Laurimar made history on the weekend after winning its first ever senior match in its maiden season in the NFL.
It took six rounds for the Power to get off the mark in Heidelberg Golf Club Division 3 but, according to coach Wayne Sharkie, it’s a result the club could see coming.
“We said to ourselves that playing Mernda is a winnable game for us,” Sharkie told NFL.org.au.
“We’ve been really competitive against four sides…we just haven’t been able to string those four quarters together.”
Sharkie lauded the hard work of his players, saying the most important aspect of the weekend’s game was the belief in which they played with.
“We brought that intensity in the first quarter which then carried on for the rest of the game,” he said.
“We went in pretty even at quarter time and the boys had a look knowing they were in the game.
“The belief in the boys just carried on which is something that has been knocked around a bit in the past few weeks.”
The 20-point victory over Mernda will now go into the Laurimar history books, a win that has greater importance than just four points for the club.
“In terms of history it is (worth more than four points) and we needed to get off the mark,” Sharkie said.
“The club needed to put down a stake and say ‘we’re in this division to win games not just to run around and make up the numbers’. The boys needed that reinforcement.
“It’s still a game of footy though in a 16 game season game season so we need to be able to keep doing it.”
The triumph is all the more significant given the Power had an average losing margin of 81 points over the first five rounds, including a 149-point loss to St Mary’s in the previous round.
The results sparked Sharkie to make some changes both on and off field.
“We went in with a different structure to what we have in other weeks. We went smaller and probably a little bit quicker,” he said.
“Strategically to get what we needed in certain positions we had to change a few blokes around.
“I think this week we were a little bit braver… a lot of those things paid off for us on the day.”
Sharkie believes the win on the weekend gives the club plenty of hope for the future, admiring the efforts of those who have put in ample time and effort into getting the club up and running.
“There’s a lot of people off the field who have put a lot of work into the Laurimar Football Club. The committee, football managers, merchandisers and really everyone that founded the club – it was a really big win for them,” he said.
“We got them in the rooms with us to sing the song after the game and it’s a vindication of the fact that they have done the right thing at the right time with this club.
“We’ve got some really good under-17s coming up and we need to give them a pathway. Us winning and showing that we’re going to be a competitive club in this division and beyond will go a long way.”
