Old Eltham Collegians claim first silverware in Northern Football Netball League

After a club-saving move to the Northern league in 2019, Old Eltham Collegians celebrated its first premiership win as its reserves saluted.

Old Eltham Collegians win the NFNL Division 3 reserve grade premiership.

Saturday was a historic day for Old Eltham Collegians.

The Turtles collected their first Northern Football Netball League silverware, capturing the Division 3 reserve grade premiership with a 20-point win over Laurimar.

It is the club’s first flag at any level since winning the VAFA Division 4 reserve grade title in 2007.

The 5.9 (39) to 2.7 (19) victory continues Collegians improvement since a club-saving move to the NFNL in 2019.

From the brink of collapse in the Amateurs, the Turtles’ senior team has made back-to-back preliminary finals and the reserves have delivered a maiden trophy.

Luke Ogilvie is a Turtles legend – a former club captain and games record holder – and now premiership coach.

He said the transformation has been fantastic to watch.

“It’s been amazing, I started in 2004 as a player,” Ogilvie said.

“In 2018 the club was on its knees, to a point where we weren’t too far off folding, so it’s the best thing the club has done.

“To bounce back from there, it’s great, it’s made a lot of people happy that’s for sure.

“(The club) is much healthier and it’s only a matter of time for the senior group, they’ll learn from the last two years and I’ve got no doubt they’re not far from taking the next step and playing in a grand final.”

Old Eltham came into the grand final as underdogs against an undefeated Laurimar team that had beaten it by 41 points in the qualifying final.

However, Ogilivie was confident a new gameplan would turn the tables.

“I was clearly stoked, we knew Laurimar was the best team but we still had a fair bit of belief,” he said.

“After the first finals loss we watched the vision, which we hadn’t had access to all year being reserves, and put together a gameplan that we thought could help us win.

“The plan was to turn it into a stoppage game, I thought we had a better midfield group – bigger bodies – and we thought a defensive style was the best chance to beat them.

“It was a huge defensive effort, not just from the backs but across the ground, and we grinded them down.”

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Half-back Brad Johnstone was awarded the grand final medal for best-on-ground, while ruckman Tom Cleary, Jesse Howell, Jake Cullen and Tim Woods also impressed.

“Brad was exceptional, he’s played onball most the year but on Saturday we put him at half-back,” Ogilvie said.

“We wanted more run-and-carry off half-back and we had some other blokes who could play the role in midfield, he gave us more zip out of defence and was sensational.

“Tommy Cleary as well, who played ruck and floated down back, he was unbelievable for us also.”