By Matt Fotia
Heathmont won’t be taking a backwards step this Friday Night, as the Jets take on yet another Premiership rival in the early stages of their 2022 Division Two campaign, with Nick Rutley’s embracing the excitement ahead of another bumper Parker Cup clash under lights.
Heathmont sit sixth on the Division Two ladder after a tough opening fortnight with a 1-1 record, where they took on the punters two Premiership favourites, South Belgrave, and The Basin. Rutley and Heathmont are no strangers to tough opening months, with the Jets taking on The Basin, South Belgrave, Ringwood, and Boronia to kick things off in 2021.
All things considered Rutley is pleased with his sides start to the season, despite some pretty inaccurate kicking at goal, with the Jets misfiring up forward, kicking 11.25 (91) to date.
“Really happy, especially with the injuries that we’ve had,” said Rutley about his sides start to the year.
“If we had of put some scoreboard pressure on South Belgrave in the third quarter, where we owned the first chunk of play, it could’ve been a different story, but their good players stepped up when it mattered, so we walked away from that game disappointed, but not devastated,
“And then The Basin, who we haven’t played since Round One 2021, we knew would be strong – Stants (Justin Stanton) runs a tight ship and they’ve recruited well – but we jumped them and really that game should’ve been iced a lot earlier due to inaccuracy, but I was super happy with maturity the group showed during the game with our ball movement, our patience and ability to go slow.”
Going slow is not a term usually associated with Nick Rutley sides. The former Wandin coach was notorious for high scores during his time with the Outer East side, and Heathmont were the leakiest defence of the Division Two top four in 2021, something Rutley contributed to their inability to recognise and adapt to different game situations.
“It’s good (playing fast) when it works and you can just keep playing fast and having a crack at it, but you can’t sustain that and if you try to, you’ll fatigue, fall apart behind the football and teams like South Belgrave, The Basin and Ringwood will kick through you,
“We’ve experienced that at times this year, but we’ve been able to balance out better than we did last season, and I’ll contribute that to keeping our list together and the quality of the assistant coaches that we’ve bought in.”
The Jets and Redbacks shared the spoils in 2021, with both sides winning their respective home fixtures against each other, and unlike several other local rivals (see Montrose and Mooroolbark) have been in the same division for 10 years, after the Jets promotion to the third tier in 2012.
Rutley loves every aspect of the relationship between the two clubs and is keen to let the players and supporters embrace the energy it brings.
“It’s a fierce rivalry and a long running one,
“It adds a lot of excitement and people want to come and watch it, we had a lot of neutrals at the game last year and people are so invested because people from both clubs know so much about each other, so everyone wants to contribute and be involved,
“People feel attached to the rivalry, because they’ve either played in it or have memories of it, so you have to be open to that and engage with it because if you suppress it and make it too professional, you just lose the community feel and overall event.”
For the first time in a while, Heathmont head into the clash as slight favourites, despite Ringwood’s unblemished start to the year, but Rutley is wary of taking the Redbacks lightly.
“They’re well coached and a team that refused to give in against The Basin in Round One, and came up against a Mulgrave team that are a hard team to get the points off week in, week out,
“Rowey’s (Brett Rowe) been with his group for a while now and they’ve been through a lot, they’ve been to Grand Finals etc, he’s been to war with those boys,
“He’s got a lot of respect from me, and he’ll have his group wound up, so if we don’t at least breakeven at the contest, they’ll do what they did to us the second time round last year and they’ll hit us on the outside,
“They’re still a really good footy team, they’re not one dimensional or predictable, they’re going to be a tough test.”
Heathmont host Ringwood under lights this Friday at H.E. Parker Reserve with the first bounce at 7pm.
