By Connor Burns
Before Sunday’s game Coburg defender Ryan Sturgess had kicked just seven goals in his 28-game long VFL career. At half-time the ‘Burgers’ needed an offensive boost, trailing by 28 points with a meek 2.7 on the board.
Enter defender Sturgess! The 22-year-old was swung forward in a coaching move that would completely change the momentum of the game… and the outcome.
“In terms of the discussion I had at ground level for going forward, it was as simple as me asking Luke Stutter who does our rotations on the bench, who I was going back on for, thinking he was going to say one of the other backman,” he said.
“To him saying you’re going on for Pods (Mitch Podhajski) who was the forward at the time and that’s when I got told by Jamie on the headset I was going forward and what my role was going to be the rest of the game and it proved successful which was nice.”
His first goal came in the sixth minute of the third term, curtesy of a 50-metre penalty that gave him a shot from point blank range, His last goal proved to be the match winner from just inside the 50m arc in the 28th minute of the final term. He kicked two in between those to finish with a VFL career high four goal haul.
Sturgess has become a mainstay in the side this season playing 11 games. He has made his mark as an intercept defender that can play on talls and smalls and is in Coburg’s leadership group. The 10 games before Sunday’s outing had yielded no goals for Sturgess, almost exclusively playing in the back-half.
Sturgess said it had been quite a while since he had kicked four goals in a game.
“First time for everything kicking the four goals, certainly at senior level. Last time I was able to do it would’ve been back in either early junior days when I actually was playing as a forward or back in school football days, so certainly few and far between,” he said.
“I’d love to do that weekly, but we probably know that’s not going to happen, so at the end of the day wherever I’m played I just want to be able to try to play my role to the best of my ability.”
The game had everything, inspirational plays, big hits and gritty plays with all players willing themselves at every contest. At one stage in the 2nd quarter Coburg trailed by as many as 35 points before taking their game to the next level.
“I can’t even put the game into words, the relief that was felt at the end of the game, the emotion that poured out, obviously having now been at the club for five years. As a close supporter in those previous years when I had other family members playing for the club, I understand the hardships that we’ve gone through,” Sturgess said.
“There’s been a lot of dark days at the club, so wins like that put in perspective as to how close we are and how hard we work to get those sorts of wins. So, when that siren went I couldn’t even put into words how good it felt.
Just the relief that was sent through the rest of the playing group and subsequently the enjoyment in the rooms after, being able to celebrate with the rest of the teammates, rest of the supporters who have stuck by us for so long, it was just really special.”
After the game senior coach Jamie Cassidy-McNamara had a cheeky dig at ‘Sturge’ for his efforts on the day.
“I would like to claim Ryan going forward, but to be honest for everyone in the room, we were trying to find somewhere to hide him, in the end he kicked four, so we’ll claim it,” he said.
Despite the jokes and the banter, Sturgess had played a crucial role to half-time helping keep Port Melbourne’s Billy Gowers goalless and limiting his impact. Gowers is a former AFL player and has kicked 27 goals so far this season in the VFL, to sit high on the goalkicking leaderboard.
“As I said after the game, I didn’t think I was playing that badly in the first half, I had a couple of moments that I would’ve certainly loved back and had over again,” he said.
“In terms of playing on Gowers who’s I believe leading and/or still up there in the goalkicking for the competition. To have him goalless to half-time, I thought was pretty good.
Given that I was able to swing forward and have an impact, that was my main thing at the end of the day. I thought to myself at half-time look I’m not having my best game, I’ve got a chance here to swing that around and really get myself back in the game which I felt like I was able to do relatively well and contribute to the end result.”
After a much-improved season but one filled with narrow losses, Sturgess believes it was the best victory he has been a part of.
“Without a doubt that sits as the best win I’ve ever been a part of as a player at this club. Given the tough period we’ve had or at least for the five years that I’ve been at the club, that ranks as the best win I’ve ever been a part of,” he said.
“35 points down, trying conditions with how the ground was playing, the wind that was present. I thought it was just a tough, gritty win where everyone bought into our brand and what we stand for. I think they’re the best type of wins.
Again, we haven’t had many of them, so to get that feeling was simply the best that I’ve ever been a part of at senior level.”
The former Northern Knights product said he’s looking forward to finishing the season well and believes that anything is possible for the team next year and beyond.
“Purely from a win-loss perspective it’s disappointing because we had such great expectations of ourselves compared to what we have in previous years, so we understand we would’ve wanted more wins,” he said.
“We want to be playing finals and certainly pushing for premiership success next year, the following year, and multiple years to come. With the group that we have right now, we all stick together, keep adding to that list, increasing our connection on and off the field, we think we’re going to put ourselves in a really good position and actually have that success.”
“In terms of how this year’s played out, I think it’s been incredible and hopefully we can take four more wins into the off-season and give us a really good boost heading into next year’s pre-season and have serious confidence that we can do something special next year.”
The Lions come up against the Frankston Dolphins this Sunday afternoon at Piranha Park, with the game commencing at 1:05pm. Get down and support the boys as they look to make it back-to-back wins and finish this season in style.
