Saints scrap it out to notch first win of the season

“Yeah, it's good, it tells us kind of what we already knew, that we're playing some okay footy, we just hadn't had a win yet,” Pearson said of his maiden win with the club.

“The win was just to sort of tell us that the work we're doing is actually paying off, so we're pretty happy about that.

“But even more so across the board, our thirds and our reserves won as well, and we're trying to play a club brand of footy, so to get three wins is really exciting.”

It was fairly comprehensive, too, with the Saints leading at every change en route to the 25-point victory, which will no doubt enthuse players and supporters alike.

The Saints enjoyed a narrow lead at the first break, ahead 14-13 in a term that saw only three goals kicked, a lead they managed to extend to 10 points by half time, before a run of three-straight goals to open the second half saw the Saints open up a game-high 30-point lead as the three-quarter time break approached.

The Magpies got one back just before the two sides entered the huddles, although staring at a four-goal margin when they had kicked only two to that point must have seemed a mountainous task for Euroa to overcome.

And so it proved, as the two sides each booted two goals in the last term, handing Benalla its first win of the season.

Pearson attributed some of the reasoning for the low scoring to Euroa’s ability to defend, which he praised, however he noted too that his side had plenty to work on when moving the ball inside 50.

“It was (low scoring), and that's credit probably to Euroa as well, their defensive efforts were really good,” he said.

“They've got a good midfield, they’ve got some really strong players throughout their midfield, and they went really defensive on some of our good forwards, they obviously did their homework, but nonetheless, we probably didn’t give our forwards the best look at it…

“We haven't sort of really honed in too hard on how our entries look, so we'll tackle that over the next three weeks and we'll fix that up, and hopefully as a result of that, you'll see some higher scores.”

There were familiar names among the best for the Saints, with ruckman Mark Marriott and skipper Chris Welsh having a big say on proceedings, while David Mennen backed up his round one form with another brilliant showing.

But there was plenty to like from the Saints imports, too, with the likes of Travis Young, Mitchell Vasterink and Michael Mummery in the best and among the goals as they continue to impress in their first few outings for the club.

“They are awesome, mate,” Pearson said of the newcomers.

“We know it here in Benalla, but the guys that we've brought in, they’ve not just bought into our footy club, they've genuinely bought into our community…

“Mitch Vasterink, he's moved his whole family down (from Queensland), and he's out helping our under-17s do ruck work at training.

“Travis Young, I popped down the club yesterday to grab something, and Travis was in there with five of our 18-year-olds and taking them through a recovery session.

“So, it's one thing to come and play really good footy, but they’ve bought into the community, and I think that reflects in their football, they care a lot.”

Both sides face tough away trips in round four, with Euroa to face Seymour at Kings Park on Saturday afternoon, while Benalla will head to Mansfield Recreation reserve to take on the Eagles under lights on Saturday night, a challenge that Pearson welcomes.

“Night footy's a different brand of footy all over, it’s completely different playing with a yellow ball,” he said.

“I know it sounds strange, but night footy is almost a different brand of footy in some areas, like when that dew sets in, you're almost playing in wet weather.

“So, we'll address all that type of stuff as well, but we won't change anything.

“We look forward to it, at this stage we might only make one change and it'll just be because we've got guys playing in the reserves… that are banging the door down.”