SFNL: East Brighton secure Division 2 premiership

It’s a “fairytale” for coach Nick Jewell and his star-laden East Brighton side after the Vampires secured the Southern league Division 2 title. Here’s how they did it.

Southern league: East Brighton v Murrumbeena. Brighton players celebrate their victory. Picture: Valeriu Campan

His return is complete.

37 years after his last season at East Brighton, coach Nick Jewell has steered the Vampires back into the top flight of the Southern league.

A mammoth crowd surrounded a sun-drenched Ben Kavanagh Reserve to watch Jewell’s East Brighton edge out Murrumbeena, 13.14 (92) to 7.7 (49).

There was a sea of red at Mordialloc. Picture: Valeriu Campan

Cale Love-Linay was best afield. Picture: Valeriu Campan

Ryan Semmel and Sean Downie kicked three goals apiece and Cale Love-Linay kicked two in a best afield performance.

The Vampires, who fell into finals last year with a 7-1-8 record, added Jewell as coach and a plethora of A-Grade recruits.

Jewell reflected on his busy off-season and how it transformed the Vampires from a middle-of-the-road side to an immovable power.

“Yeah it’s a fairytale ending to the season, really,” he said.

“We were starting off on a decent base, finishing fifth last year and we felt we just needed to add some weapons to the side, add some firepower.

“(Nick) Corp and (Tom) Lamb up forward and (Ryan) Semmel and (Sean) Downie in the middle, they gave us great drive with (Blake) Cochrane and the two (Cale and Kai) Love-Linays.

“We were lucky towards the end to add Tyrren Head and Brady Egan, we pretty much covered every line, it really complimented what we had from the previous year.

“It couldn’t have worked out better in terms of recruiting, everyone we spoke to landed and they all lived about ten minutes from the ground.”

East Brighton is Division 2 premiers. Picture: Valeriu Campan

The Vampires went into the first change in Saturday’s decider down by a kick after the Lions had first crack with a strong breeze.

When it was East Brighton’s turn in the second term, it wasted no time in hitting the scoreboard, kicking seven goals to one to win the term 48-8.

While Semmel, Downie and Love-Linay inserted themselves into the game in the second, Jewell said it was the back six against the wind in the first and third that impressed him the most.

“We really wanted to stretch the ground with the wind, make it wide, make it long and give our players one-on-one contests all over the ground,” he said.

“It was the opposite in the first quarter, we wanted to play the dead side and have repeat stoppages, shut down the ball movement.

“I thought we did really well in the third quarter as well, they got a couple of late goals but apart from that it was almost the perfect quarter.

“Everyone spoke about how dominant our second quarter was but I thought our ability to shut the game down in those quarters against a five, six-goal wind.

“All year we have spoken internally about our defenders, everyone talks about our goal kickers, high-scores, but that’s always been on the back of our defensive work.”

East Brighton star Blake Cochrane. Picture: Valeriu Campan

Tom Lamb had a phenomenal year. Picture: Valeriu Campan

After a signing spree that included nine recruits last season, East Brighton plans to go again to keep up with the contenders in Division 1.

“No doubt we have to get better,” Jewell said.

“We tried to train at a really high standard this year, we wanted to be a Div 1 club, fitness levels and standards went up this year.

“We want to recruit, we have spoken to four or five, we need to add to the group, no doubt.

“A lot of the side’s in Div 1 have VFL top-up players, so we’re under no illusions that it’s going to be a real challenge.”

East Brighton also won the reserves, defeating Murrumbeena 8.9 (57) to 1.3 (9).