Chirnside Park suffers third 100-plus-point defeat of the Eastern Football League season

CHIRNSIDE Park slumped to its second consecutive 100-plus-point belting after being kept to just one goal by a rampant Heathmont.

Chirnside Park coach Alan Love. Picture: Chris Eastman/AAP

CHIRNSIDE Park slumped to its second consecutive 100-plus-point belting on Saturday after being kept to just one goal by a rampant Heathmont.

The Jets piled on 10 goals in the final quarter at H.E Parker Reserve to finish with a 149-point triumph, with the Panthers facing the likelihood of relegation.

Chirnside Park’s combined losing margin the past two weeks has been 276 points after a 127-point defeat to Boronia in Round 5, anchored to the bottom of the Division 3 ladder with a per cent of just 31.31.

First-year coach Alan Love said the winless Panthers needed to keep exploring talent on their list as they blood young talent after an exodus of players over the summer.

“We lost 22 players that played more than 10 senior games last year and over the previous two seasons we’ve lost 32 players,” he said.

“That’s where the club is at the moment, we’re playing a lot of boys ... we’ve had to try fast-track as many of the under-19s kids from last year.”

Chirnside Park could manage just one behind in the first half before Heathmont finished with a 23.21 (159) to 1.4 (10) victory.

The Panthers’ only goal of the game came from the boot of Cameron Mitchell in the third quarter as the Panthers slipped to their third 100-plus-point defeat of the season.

With six teams to be relegated from Division 3 at the end of the season as part of the Eastern Football League restructure, Love said Chirnside Park was resigned to being demoted.

“If we’re really honest with ourselves, we’re beholden to what the new EFL restructure looks like now. I think we’re going have to be realistic with where we’re sit,” he said.

“The new guys and the young guys are going to get a lot more exposure to senior football and some of that is not going to be pretty.

“We acknowledge that but we’ve got to make sure that these next 12 weeks bear a lot more fruit.

“For us, we just have to see what is among the roughness and find a couple of diamonds and I think we will by the end of the year.”