By Leader Local Footy
A stunning come-from-behind victory, inspired by young gun Seb Molloy, has secured Eltham’s place in NFNL Division 1 for next season
Trailing by 24 points late in the third quarter, the Panthers booted seven unanswered goals, and eight in the last term to shock finals contender Banyule by 18 points.
The 14.9 (93) to 11.9 (75) victory at Central Park moves the club two games clear of last-placed Macleod with three games remaining.
Youngster Seb Molloy booted five goals in an inspiring fourth-quarter performance, finishing the match with six majors.
Eltham coach Tim Bongetti revealed several risky positional changes paid off hugely.
“Big performances from Declan Ayres, he’s normally full-back but I put him in the ruck,” Bongetti said.
“Lane Sinclair is normally centre half-back and I moved him to ruck rover and Jason McCormack from the forward line into the middle.
“We had a completely different look at the bounce, you take risks as a coach and if they don’t come off you own it but it did come off and we got the first three clearances and three goals in five minutes.”
“Young Seb Molloy, he came across late in the pre-season last year, I think it was Round 14 or 15 and I said I’m bringing this bloke in and my assistants said ‘who’.
“I liked what he was doing in the 19s, I’d been watching him, he came in and played a great game.
“He had a standout performance … unbelievable, just his pace, when he gets it he puts on the after-burners and kicked two or three from inside the goalsquare after running from 30 or 40m out.”
Eltham had trailed at every change, down four points at quarter-time, 18 at half-time and again at three-quarter-time.
A six-goal burst turned the deficit into a 17-point lead and despite Banyule fighting back to within five points, the Panthers finished with the last two goals of the game to seal a season-defining win.
Bongetti said it rivalled last year’s drought-breaking premiership.
“That was probably the biggest relief on Saturday,” he said.
“Some people will be against me here, but from a coaching point of view, to get a club up to Div 1 and then hold it and establish for a second year is probably a bigger relief than winning the premiership.
“We’ve had plenty of injuries, just like every club so it’s not excuse, so touch wood results go our way and we can pinch another one.
“To stay in Div 1 it was such an important win for us.”
The Panthers finish the home-and-away season with matches against North Heidelberg (away), Heidelberg (home) and Bundoora (away).
Macleod and Bundoora have likely been left to battle to survive.
Bongetti was re-signed last month, locking the premiership coach in for a third season at Central Park.
With the coach and the club’s future secured, the Panthers can look ahead to 2025.
“It was a tough day for Banyule, for them to show up when our season is on the line,” Bongetti said.
“We had so much more (to play for), they were the club that went up the year before us so we had the belief we were close.
“We wanted redemption for losing a grand final a couple of years ago and trying to stay in Div 1 and we had our president’s lunch with Nathan Buckley so we had a good crowd in and we fed off that energy.
“The club came to me, I organised a half-year review because I wanted their feedback.
“I wanted to get it done earlier rather than later so if we were going to stay up we could start to prepare and lock away our playing group and start to look for pieces of the puzzle to be around the finals mark next year.”
