Coaches take plenty of positives and opportunities after SFL opener.

Brighton coach Paul Kennedy is taking plenty of positives from his side’s first impression of the SFL Premier League. Here’s why.

Players try to keep the ball alive during the SFL Premier League opening round matchup between Brighton and Glenorchy at Pontville Oval. Picture: Jake Garland

A third quarter blitz from Glenorchy kicked Brighton out of the game to claim their first win of the season.

The Magpies kicked six goals in the third term after holding a four-goal lead at half time to blow the game open.

But the Robins didn’t look out of place for the other three quarters, kicking five goals in the final quarter which cut their margin back down to 12.10 (82) to 17.11 (113) at the final siren.

Brighton coach Peter Kennedy said his side can take some positives from the game.

“I thought there were large stretches of the game where we had control of the game,” Kennedy said.

Brighton's Zachary Evans-Fenton lines up for goal during the opening round match against Glenorchy at Pontville Oval. Picture: Jake Garland

“But a big part of our transition to the higher level is the ability to shut down quick ball movement which starts with reaction time.

“The reaction time at this level has to be quicker and our practice game against Clarence and again tonight we allowed too much transition ball movement which allowed them easy scores.

“At half time if you looked at the stats, it is an even ball game but we go in four goals down.

“The third quarter they got on a little burst and instead of it going from a level game to three goals, it goes out to seven goals and the game is probably done at three quarter time.

“But that said our last quarter was exceptional, it is a credit to the boys with how fit they’ve got to apply that level of pressure right up to 120 minutes.”

In a tight first half, the Robins kicked the opening goal and took it to Glenorchy heading into the first break down by just 12 points.

Movement shifted back and forth throughout the second quarter as Glenorchy slowly got a hold of the game to head into the main break up by 24 points.

Magpies coach Josh Arnold said his side always knew it was going to be a tough matchup.

“It was a seesaw contest, we knew those guys were going to be pumped up,” Arnold said.

“At home, Friday night, first fixture, it really showed that they came to play.

‘At times they had momentum and then we had it but at the end there it was nice to see that we started to play the way we wanted to.

“The disappointing thing for us is we allowed them to put three or four goals on in the red time of the last quarter, that was probably one of the most disappointing things for the night.

“It was a very scrappy and that is expected in the first few weeks of the season.

“We just spoke about the fact we were blazing away (in the first two quarters) and we just wanted to start lowering our eyes.

“At times we were getting stuck in the motion of going long down the line rather than trying to break the game open and I thought in the third quarter we were really able to do that.”

Brighton will now look to the biggest contest in the new Premier League when they take on last year’s runners-up, Lauderdale while Glenorchy will host North Hobart.