Blackburn scores first win of the Eastern Football League season after a 32-point victory over Rowville

BLACKBURN coach Brendan Allen invested his faith in youth against Rowville with the Burners notching their first win of the Eastern Football League season.

Julian Soccio takes a mark for Blackburn. Picture: Blackburn Photos/Facebook

THE season could have been slipping away from Blackburn.

But Blackburn coach Brendan Allen invested his faith in youth on Saturday and the result paid a handsome dividend after last week’s “embarrassing” final quarter fade out against Noble Park.

The 14.13 (97) to 9.11 (65) win over Rowville had a fresh vibe about it for the Burners — there were five players with three or less games experience as the Burners banked their first four points of the season.

And it was a victory to savour — a 32-point triumph over the previously undefeated Rowville at Seebeck Oval.

A loss would have seen the Burners slip to 0-3 and chasing their tail for the rest of the season with challenging assignments against South Croydon, North Ringwood and Balwyn to come in the next three weeks before the interleague bye.

Ben Daniher looks for options for Blackburn. Picture: Blackburn Photos/Facebook

“I’m not going to lie to you, there was a bit of soul searching from my point of view during the week, especially coming into a new club and coming from a VFL system,” Allen said post-game, breathing a sigh of relief his side had a ‘w’ to its name.

“You look back and you go, ‘what am I doing wrong, what am I doing right’ but you just have to strip it back to the basics.”

Mackenzie Doreian, Jordan Harte, Tom Maher and debutants Jack Roughsedge and Lake Tink shared 10 senior games between them, while Jackson Hood (Castlemaine) and Kyle Dove (Port Melbourne) had a combined eight Blackburn games.

Maher was given the task of clamping playmaker Ziggie Alwan and was named in Blackburn’s best players for his efforts.

“It’s great we can put these kids that are coming up from the under-19s and TAC Cup footy into those roles and they are getting the job done,” Allen said.

“It’s just all form based, there’s no rhyme or reason to it, those kids deserved their opportunity from the pre-season they had.

“If we’re going to be anywhere as a club, they’ve got to step up to those roles.”

Rowville jumped out to a 16-point lead when Chris Clarke nailed his second goal for the afternoon at the 21-minute mark of the first term.

But the Burners proceeded to pile on eight of the next nine goals, with Ryan Bathie’s three majors for the day all coming in the second quarter.

Forward partner Jake Hammond was lively playing further up the ground, while captain Pat Contin, Ben Daniher, Xavier Murphy and Julian Soccio controlled the midfield battle.

Alwan soccered through Rowville’s first goal since early in the second quarter at the 17-minute mark of the third term to trim the margin to 21 points.

But three goals in four minutes just before the final change quickly thwarted any hopes the Hawks had of working a miracle as the Burners went to three-quarter time with a 39-point buffer.

The margin threatened to balloon beyond 10 goals in the final term before Rowville kicked three late consolation goals.

Blackburn will be boosted in the coming weeks by the returns of Luke Parker, Dan McGee, Ben McIntyre, Michael Dunn, Nathan Hammond, Max Otten and Jason Read.