EFNL Division 2 2024: New names, mainstays fire as Ringwood stuns Templestowe

Debutants impressed while experienced heads cracked in as Ringwood stunned 2023 preliminary finalist Templestowe on Saturday. One first-gamer even looked like a “seasoned veteran”.

Ringwood’s Tim Jones attacks the footy on Saturday. Photo by Josh Chadwick

First-game jitters? Forget it.

New names and mainstays combined to lift Ringwood to an 11.13 (79) to 8.16 (64) victory over Templestowe to open the Division 2 season on Saturday.

Recruit Blake Naismith, who crossed from North Ringwood, featured at centre half-back and finished among the best afield in his “first real foray into senior footy”.

“Outstanding,” Ringwood senior coach Brett Rowe said.

“He was very nervous (before the game) – last time he played was under-19s footy a bit over a year ago, so it was his first real foray into senior footy and he just looked like a seasoned veteran. He was really good for us down back.

“He’s 22 I think, he’s got a few mates from North Ringwood who play with us, so it was good to get him.”

But he wasn’t the only debutant to make an impact, with another kicking the sealer deep into the final term.

“It took another debutant, Ewan Webber, to kick a goal from the boundary,” Rowe said.

“His background is actually soccer … he’s got this natural kicking action and it never looked like missing.

“It was a very important kick from a guy who had never played senior footy before, (and) to just deliver that showed real character.”

Ringwood coach Brett Rowe. Photo by Josh Chadwick

Patrick Moio also impressed the coach on debut for the club.

“He came across from Bulleen-Templestowe … we spoke pre-game about sacrificial acts and playing team roles and he’s really good at that – he’s strongly built and played up forward,” Rowe said.

“He was able to create stoppages, slow their ball-movement out and gave us a target.

“In his first go in the Eastern league, he was very good.”

Despite the typical fatigue and cobwebs of a Round 1 hitout, the Redbacks jumped to 16-point half-time advantage before holding the three-goal buffer at the final change.

The visitors’ usual suspects led the way in finishing the job.

“We really jumped out of the blocks – we spoke about it at half-time how we’d worked really hard for that lead, so let’s really maintain it and we were able to,” Rowe said.

“Our leaders really stood up for us, like Tim Jones and Mitch Jackson – really important players for us, (and) Jacob Bell in the midfield.

“Our midfield were really strong around the contest … we were able to hold our winning position.”

Templestowe’s Dion Mustafa is tackled by Ringwood’s Jacob Bell. Photo by Josh Chadwick

Ringwood missed the finals by four points last season, finishing in sixth spot, while Templestowe – third – played off in the prelim.

Mitch Brereton, Josh Meerkotter and Jacob Williams finished with two goals apiece while Templestowe defender Alex Brown was the hosts’ best as Dion Mutafa booted two majors.

“Last time we played Templestowe we won by 50 points, so we were fairly confident about a way we could play against them to get the points,” Rowe said.

“It was tight all day and I was really happy with how we executed a lot of the stuff we’d been working on in the lead-up.”