SFNL 2025: Inside Bentleigh’s turnaround, 94-point win after heavy loss

Bentleigh has won two games on the bounce and delivered one of the season’s most emphatic performances after suffering an 87-point loss. How the Demons responded.

Bentleigh. Picture: Steve Tanner

Just two matches on from an 87-point drubbing, Bentleigh delivered one of the most emphatic performances the Southern league’s top division had seen all season.

The Demons downed Cranbourne by 94 points to mark a second win on the bounce since their heavy loss.

“We lowered our colours pretty well, the Cheltenham game was the best we’ve played against and to be honest the worst we’d played throughout the whole year,” Bentleigh coach Jack Jess said.

“To bounce back from that, the boys had the resilience to knuckle down and get to work during the weeks and turn that around pretty quickly against two sides who had been going pretty good.”

Cranbourne has struggled this season and is last on the ladder, but has been competitive and Jess noted the Eagles average losing margin was around 20 points.

“We played really well … we were on our toes a bit and knew we had to be our best to beat them,” Jess said.

“It’s probably the most complete game we’ve played all season and it helps to get a few bodies back.”

Jess said it was simply a case of moving on after the Cheltenham loss.

“We knew that’s as bad as we could play, it was a bit of our wipe it out of our review, we didn’t even review it,” he said.

“We just looked forward and what works for us and what our best footy looks like and we definitely got back to that the last couple of weeks, which has been really pleasing for the group to respond.

“It’s been a bit of a theme all year in games that when teams challenge us we’ve been able to respond and wrestle back momentum.

“Whether that’s in the game or week to week, we’ve been really good at that, we just had a bit of a bad patch, that’s okay as long as you bounce back from it which we’ve done so far and need to continue to do in the next few weeks.”

The Demons flew out of the blocks with the wind at their back against Cranbourne, kicking 18 scoring shots to 1 in the opening term to open up a 57-point lead.

They never looked back and finished with 18.21 (129) to Cranbourne’s 5.5 (35).

“The way we set the ground up was a big focus going into the breeze and against it,” Jess said.

“I think we defended it really well in turn when they had it in the next quarter, we defended the whole ground extremely well so that was very pleasing and a massive positive.

“It would’ve been nice to kick it a little bit straighter, that’s been a theme of our year is the inaccuracy, but when you’re getting that many looks at it, it counteracts it a little bit.

“Some things to work on for sure and we’re not going to rest on our laurels.”

Young pressure forward Tom Dowsing announced himself to the league with a six goals haul in the win. It was the first time he’d kicked multiple goals in a senior match this season.

“He’s been threatening to do that all year, he’s been working really hard at training and during the weeks on improving that,” Jess said of Dowsing.

“You kind of forget he could still be playing under-19s, we really saw his potential and decided to pull him into the seniors for the entirety of the year.

“His tackle pressure for his size in first-class and his chasing, we’ve been working on the balance of doing all that workrate stuff and getting on the scoreboard and now he’s just got his reward … it’s definitely clicked for him.

“I genuinely think he can be the best small forward in the league, that’s a great reward for effort for him.”

Bentleigh’s next challenge will come when the Demons face East Brighton at Hurlingham Park on Saturday.