That will ring true with Seymour this week after the Lions recorded a comprehensive victory over Euroa at Memorial Oval on Saturday, their first of the 2025 campaign following three straight losses to start the year.
With both sides heading into the traditional Anzac Day weekend fixture winless, there was plenty on the line, but it was the Lions who got the early jump and carried on with it in the 16.11 (107) to 8.11 (59) victory to head home with four points.
Coach Ben Davey said his troops headed in with a clear plan to negate the Magpies’ strength around stoppage, which they executed to perfection from the opening bounce, essentially killing the contest by half-time.
“The first half we pretty well put the game to bed, which was really good,” he said.
“The way we played was completely different to the way we played the previous three weeks and it's hard to put an exact finger on why it happens or how it happens, but I think it was just because we're such a young group, and we started well, they sort of got the confidence up and then just kept going.
“Euroa have been pretty good, they've been in all of their first three games, they've been close to the good teams, so we knew that we had to really stop what their strengths were.
“They've been really good at getting numbers to the ball and working really hard in the contested area and being really hard to play against.
“We thought if we can get in first and take that away from them, that would really help, so the boys' pressure from the start of the game on the Euroa players was super, every time they got the ball they were under the pump.
“We were able to create turnovers and get the ball on our terms a lot which was really good, it was great.”
Having shown glimpses in each of their three previous matches, but with nothing to show for it, Seymour made a statement in the first term, kicking six goals while keeping Euroa scoreless to enter the quarter time huddle with a 37-point lead.
Despite kicking just 1.2 in the second term, the Lions continued their ferocious attack on the football, ensuring Euroa mustered just five behinds to half-time.
It was a stark contrast to their defensive performances in each of the first three rounds which has seen them concede more than 100 points on every occasion, which Davey put down to the contest being played on their terms.
“I think the big thing was that we actually had the ball, and if you’ve got the ball most of the time, you’re very hard to score against because the other team doesn’t have it,” he said.
“And the pressure our guys were putting on Euroa, they never got clean ball into their forward 50, it always came in messy or high, and it always gave our defenders a real opportunity to stop it, so that was probably the big one I think.”
After half-time the margin ballooned to a game-high 87 points late in the third term, with Seymour having kicked the first seven of the second half and the first 14 for the game, before Euroa finally got on the board.
A six-goal final term from the Magpies pulled the margin back to less than 50 points, however, it was still an inspired performance from the young Lions, who will take great confidence and growth from the win.
There is no understating how important the win is in terms of the season as a whole, too, even if only four of 18 games have been played, with a 1-3 record far and away better than going 0-4 in the first month, at least psychologically.
“Well, it's huge, because you play footy every year to get better and to play finals, so if you're zip and four, then it's sort of like 'oh, finals is probably nearly not in the picture now, is it?'” Davey said.
“You've probably got to win 10 or 11 of your next 14, so just to have the win says we can still play finals, it's still there.
“It's important in that sense to have that win, because you don't want to be limping through a season, it can be a long year if you get to zip and four, you're still technically a sniff, but it's very hard from there.”
Co-coach Jack Murphy was huge in the win, booting four goals as he continues a brilliant start to the year, while Jesse Brock, Darcy Giles, Nathan Beattie and James Wooster were all influential also.
The Lions will look to take another step closer to evening up the ledger when they take on Shepparton United at home this week, while Euroa’s season is seemingly in the balance, staring down the barrel of an 0-5 start unless they can beat Mooroopna away from home.
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