Southern league 2021: winning start for Narre South Saints

With a new forward to the fore, the Saints claimed a big scalp in their debut in the Southern league.

Narre South Saints started their Southern affiliation with victory over Endeavour Hills. Pic: Narre South Saints

With burly “Buzz’’ Nolan up front, the Narre Saints South Saints went marching in to the Southern league with a statement-making win.

The Saints joined the SFNL at the end of the 2019 season but had to wait 18 months to make their debut.

They did so against Endeavour Hills, and won 10.5 (65) to 6.12 (48) at Barry Simon Reserve on Saturday.

The Saints came from the VAFA, where they operated as St Francis Xavier – the X Men – and won the Division 4 premiership in 2019.

They reached the preliminary final the previous year.

The Saints lost a handful of players from the premiership team but brought in a few too, including forward Brandon “Buzz’’ Nolan, who has joined a few of his mates at the club.

“Buzz’’ Nilan marks for Narre South Saints.

He kicked four goals and was among the best players.

Solidly built, he’ll be hard to shift for some defenders in Division 3 this year.

Nolan was previously at Stony Creek in the Albert league, topping the reserves goalkicking.

Tim Gavenlock, Nathan Brewster and Stephen Richards-Gill also showed the way for Narre South Saints.

Coach Scott McKenzie had been involved in Hallam before joining the Saints and was expecting Division 3 to be a good standard.

He said he respected Endeavour Hills and it was a good scalp for his team to take in Round 1.

“Very happy. Absolutely,’’ he said.

“Endeavour Hills are no slouches … to knock them off in Round 1 was great for us.

“Win, lose or draw, it was going to show us where we were at. We had a couple of pretty average practice matches that really didn’t show us a great deal … this was the first time I’d actually got to run 95 per cent of the senior squad and, yeah, very happy.

“It was always going to be a big game. We knew what were getting ourselves into, and it didn’t disappoint, that’s for sure.’’

McKenzie coached St Francis Xavier to the 2019 premiership, and has brought the well credentialed Danny Brewster to the club as playing assistant.

The Saints have entered Southern with three senior teams, as well as Under 19s.

Fellow SFNL newcomer South Mornington didn’t fare as well.

The Tigers fell 29.15 (189) to 7.4 (46) to Clayton, for whom Glenn Tuckwell booted seven goals. Josh Winfield kicked five.

The other two Division 3 matches were also blowouts.

Ashwood, under new coach Nick Morrey, defeated Doveton Eagles 22.19 (151) to 3.7 (25) in a match when 22-year-old Josh Johns took the reins as coach of the Eagles.

Johns and his brother Zakk were among the visitors’ best.

Jack Purcell slotted 12 goals for Ashwood, which unlike the Eagles enjoyed strong numbers in the pre-season. There are 30 newcomers at the club.

Purcell was one of four to link with Ashy from Donvale.

And he was one of 11 players to wear the club colours for the first time. The others were Jonathan Tommasoni, Joshua Cardamone, Liam Harrington, Aaron D’Amato, Tom Francis, Mike Olden, Lachie Moore, Luke Caton-Thomas, Billy Findlay and Mitch Turner.

Meanwhile Michael Lithotomos made his senior debut.

“There were more in the inner circle than the outer circle,’’ Morrey said of the arrangement for the club song.

Morrey made a point of seeking out Johns after the match.

“They had a real crack, early on especially,’’ he said.

“I just said to him (Johns), ‘Mate, what you’ve done to get the club going is a terrific effort, you’re picking up the pieces and you’re earning a lot of respect’.’’

Coach Ryan Handley on the move for Black Rock.

In the other game Black Rock flattened South Yarra, up from Division 4, 33.13 (211) to 4.8 (32) at Leigh Park.

Ace recruit Ned Fallon booted six goals in his first match for the Jets.

Yarras stalwart Owen Pearse insisted it was “not all doom and gloom’’ for his club, saying it had been hit with injuries and would improve once it got some players back.