EFNL Division 1: North Ringwood’s Ben Sandilands stars with matchwinning debut in thriller

North Ringwood nosed out Beaconsfield in a thriller on Saturday – with a young gun producing a matchwinning performance ...

It was a senior debut which couldn’t have been scripted any better.

North Ringwood young gun Ben Sandilands starred in his maiden top-flight showing on Saturday, kicking the matchwinner from the boundary to sink Beaconsfield in the 7.9 (51) to 7.7 (49) thriller.

Toiling away in the midfield, Sandilands finished among the Saints’ best players as his side overturned a 16-point half-time deficit to record the heart-stopping victory.

North Ringwood senior coach Robbie Nahas said Sandilands had worked “really, really hard” to earn an opportunity at senior level.

“We gave him a little role through the midfield (on Saturday) and he had a red-hot crack and bobbed up late in the last quarter,” Nahas said.

“We’d missed two pretty basic shots 20 metres out directly in front and the young kid in his first game slotted one from 40 out on the boundary to put us back in front.

“He’s a North Ringwood boy, he’s played ‘19s and he was playing in the ressies, but he just trains extremely hard and he’s had a really good pre-season.

“He’s always wanting to improve … and it’s a credit to him – each week he’s got better.”

North Ringwood’s Ben Sandilands. Picture: North Ringwood FC

Nahas sung the praises of the back six, led by the experienced Michael Locco who finished best afield.

“He’s the most consistent player I’ve coached throughout my time at North Ringwood … every week he’s in our best two or three players,” Nahas said.

“The weekend was probably the best game I’ve seen him play for us, and that’s saying a lot because he’s played a lot of really good games of footy – it was like we had two of him in the backline.

“He’s part of the reason teams don’t score too heavily against us, but not just him – Ben Livingstone, Dylan Van Unen, Lachie O’Donnell, Matty Payne.

“Those guys in our backline are extremely disciplined and strong and it just keeps us in games for long periods.”

Saturday’s result lifts the Saints to a 4-4 record – with three of those wins coming by three points or less.

They edged Bayswater by a point the previous week, following a three-point win over Croydon earlier this month.

Nahas owes his side’s narrow escapes largely to defence.

“I’m happy we’re getting the wins at the moment in those tight games – a goal either way and your season looks completely different,” he said.

“It’s essentially built on our defence – we’re winning games of footy with scores of 43, 51, 58 and 63 so essentially they’re not overly attacking scorelines.

“We’re obviously getting our defensive structures right which we’ve done a lot of work on, but there’s plenty of improvement left on what we need to do.

“It’s just being able to understand what’s required defensively and being able to execute under pressure – and we’re getting plenty of practice at it.”

North Ringwood is away to Wantirna South in Round 9.