NFNL men’s football representative coach Garry Ramsay and co-captain Jesse Donaldson have spoken of their pride in being crowned the number one football league in Victoria.
The NFNL moved to the top of the Worksafe AFL Victoria Community Championships rankings with a 24-point win over the Geelong Football Netball League at Highton’s Queens Park on Saturday.
The NFNL sat in fifth place on the rankings as recently as 2017, when Ramsay took over the coaching reigns.
However, three consecutive wins over the WRFL, MPNFL and GFNL have propelled the league into the No.1 spot.
Speaking after Saturday’s victory over the GFNL, Ramsay said the playing group deserved credit for their unwavering commitment to the representative program.
“I really appreciate the confidence the league showed in me three years ago,” Ramsay told NFNL.org.au.
“A lot of these fellas have been there throughout the three years.
“When I first took over, I reckon we sent out invitations to 40 players and of those 40, I think only 14 played. There wasn’t the interest and passion.
“Now the ones who committed have got some really special memories.
“Hopefully there are more achievements to be made, but I’ll hold this moment very special.”
The NFNL set-up the victory during the second and third quarters, when it piled on 10 goals to four to turn a 12-point deficit into an unassailable 35-point advantage at three-quarter time.
Ramsay was proud of the team’s performance on the big stage, particularly given the quality of the opposition on its home deck.
“I don’t think any league has come to Geelong and beaten them, so this is something special,” Ramsay said.
“Our strength is always going to be inside, with our tackling and our pressure. If we turned this into a skill contest and a keepings-off game with bruise-free footy, we were probably going to get beaten.
“The strength of this side is they’re really hard at the ball and hard tacklers. That’s what we had to turn the game into. In the second and third quarter we really did that.
“The last quarter when we tired a bit you could see what Geelong could do and they were very skilful.”
Co-captain Jesse Donaldson credited the even contribution from all 23 players on the day.
“We had winners across the board,” Donaldson said.
“It was a fantastic team effort and that’s what we pride ourselves on as a league. That stood out today.
“We started to really get on top inside. I think we made a few adjustments and we really wanted to control the second winger at the stoppages.
“We started getting lots of drive and run, flicking the hands around and then we started to get the baller deeper because of that.”
Donaldson said it had been an honour to lead the league for the past four years and said claiming the No.1 ranking was an achievement he would fondly look back on.
However, he said the next challenge was to defend the title in 12 months’ time.
“I’m pretty honoured to be able to lead these boys. It’s an amazing side, it leads itself,” he said.
“It’s something I’ll certainly look back on when I get a chance and I’ll be pretty proud.
“We’re not just here as a one-hit wonder. It’s great to get to number one but we would like to carry on with it.”
