Beaufort records drought breaking win after years of struggle

There’s plenty to Crow about at Beaufort after the Central Highlands club ended its winless drought. The president opens up on the coach’s impact, two gun debutants and what lays ahead.

The Beaufort Crows are back in the winners circle after two years. Picture Yuri Kouzmin

Through the return of famous sons and coach Daniel Jones, Beaufort has finally ended two years of Central Highlands league pain.

The Crows won their first game in 757 days with a 12-point win over Ballan on Saturday.

While the Crows had two draws last year it was the first time the team had won since beating the same team on May 21, 2022.

Then, Beaufort were flying, at four wins and one loss and having dreams of finals and maybe even a premiership.

Since then it’s been a battle with the team going on a winless streak stretching 34 games.

“There’s been a lot of injuries and then we’ve struggled to recruit,” Beaufort president Nick Franc said.

“Our under-18s have come up over the past year or two and they are not physically strong enough (yet) for senior football.

“We just needed some bigger mature bodies to help the kids out.”

On Saturday, the Crows got it with Jones returning from injury.

The coach kicked six goals in an instrumental performance.

He was joined by two brothers who played their first game for the club but the family has plenty of history with Beaufort.

Sam and Jack Wotherspoon came to the club after playing in the VAFA for Fitzroy FC.

Before that both played in Albury-Wodonga.

“We got two players in, Jack and Sam, who’s father played at Beaufort and their great, great, great grandfather was the president of the club in 1880s when the club started up,” Franc said.

“I was speaking to their father a few weeks ago and he said the boys weren’t playing football so they came up and played on Saturday.

“We might get them for a couple of other games.”

Franc said the win would give them confidence going forward.

But there were some nervous moments on Saturday the contest could end in a draw again.

“We were all pretty nervous,” he said.

“There were a couple times last year we were well up, two or three goals up, and teams found a way to get back to us and win or draw.”

Now, it’s all about being competitive week in, week out.

“Daniel Jones has been really positive and upbeat,” Franc said.

“We know where we are at, we know what we need to do to get our way out of it, it’s just going to take a bit more hard work and organisation.

“It’s just being more competitive over the next few years.

“It’s just about getting a bit more relevance.”

Originally published as Beaufort records drought breaking win after years of struggle