Coburg claims impressive win over Geelong in VFL milestone match

Coburg celebrated a special VFL milestone with a special performance, taking down Geelong thanks to career games from several Lions.

Nathan Boucher celebrates a goal for Coburg.

Coburg celebrated its 1800th VFL match in style on Sunday with a 44-point thumping of Geelong.

The Lions were in control from the start as skipper Peter McEvoy, Ben Reddick and Nathan Boucher had career games at Mars Stadium in Ballarat.

The match was shifted from GMHBA Stadium and the change in venue suited Coburg perfectly as it took full advantage of a strong breeze in attack and defended stoutly against it.

Coach Andrew Sturgess said the 12.11 (83) to 5.9 (39) victory was a strong start to the final month of the campaign.

“We’ve set ourselves for these last four games because it hasn’t been the year we’d hoped for to this point,” he said.

Braedyn Gillard in action for Coburg.

“While these last four games can seem insignificant in the context of this season they are quite significant in the overall journey.

“We want to build a level of belief and a platform for next season and (Sunday) was the first step and the boys delivered in spades, which was great.

“To keep an AFL-aligned team with 15 AFL-listed players to 39 points for the day and kick a winning score ourselves, it was the most mature and professional performance of the year.”

McEvoy, the Coburg co-captain and VFL Team of the Year centre half-forward, was dominant at both ends of the ground.

The veteran swingman collected a career-high 25 disposals, game-high 17 marks and kicked 2.1 to inspire his side.

“Pete played both forward and back, there was a strong breeze to one end, so he played at one end for the whole game really … he had a phenomenal game,” Sturgess said.

Nathan Boucher had a season and game-high 30 touches and nine marks, while Mitch Podhajski celebrated his 50th VFL game with 28 possessions and 14 marks.

Reddick finished with four goals and game-high six tackles to be the most dangerous forward on the ground.

The goalsneak has made a strong return from an ACL injury suffered last season and was a key factor in the Burgers’ triumph.

Tom Jepson made his VFL debut as a late inclusion, finishing with seven disposals, joining his brother Ben for the first time in Lions colours.

Tom Silvestro gets a kick for Coburg. Picture: Andy Brownbill

“Tom came down for pre-season with no real guarantee or expectation and to his credit he trained exceptionally well,” Sturgess said.

“He hasn’t got an opportunity but hasn’t dropped his bottom lip or his training standard and he came in and played a different role, competed hard and was really good.

“It’s great to have another couple of brothers play in the same team after we had Charlie and Max (Thompson) do it earlier in the year.”

Coburg’s fourth win of the season sees them remain in 18th place in the 21-team competition.

The Lions face Footscray, North Melbourne and second-placed Southport in Queensland in the final three weeks of the season.

Sturgess is confident he players can set a platform for 2023.

“In the context of our overall journey and rebuild we are just at the start of that,” he said.

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“I’ve said a few times, coming into this year we’d only played 10 games of football and now we’ve played 25 games into a rebuild and it’s going to take two or three years.

“The challenge is now to back it up and I told the boys after the match I was going to be on them this week.

“The game against North Melbourne is our last home game of the season and hopefully the supporters can get down and we can give them a look at what we're capable of.”

Coburg takes of Footscray at Whitten Oval on Saturday at 12.05pm.