By: Tash Gunawardana
East Ringwood’s season finished on a high with a 10-point win over Mooroolbark, after trailing by 17 points at half-time.
The match marked senior coach Marcus Buzaglo’s last match after five and a half seasons at the Roos’ helm.
Buzaglo spoke to EFL Sunday following the victory and his last match as coach.
“We just enjoyed the win (last Saturday),” he said.
“But unfortunately, didn’t get enough to feature in the finals where we want to feature at the end of the year.
“I was very pleased that the players got the result (last Saturday) to finish off the season strongly.”
It was a real arm wrestle with only three points separating the two sides at three quarter time, however the Roos opened it up in the final quarter with four goals to three.
“We conceded the first five goals of the game and we had a fair bit at stake, they were really good applying pressure, but over the last three quarters we were pretty good,” Buzaglo said.
“I think we got out to a 22-point lead or something like that in the last quarter (and) we had our eye on other results as well.
“We were trying to score as much as we could to be honest and win a game of footy, but it wasn’t enough.”
Buzaglo explained how he was feeling at half time when they were down and what the message was to his boys.
“First 10 or 15 minutes weren’t that great and the evenness of this competition if you don’t come to play you are going to get hurt,” he said.
“Message was we started to control parts of the game and thought we were good and like I said Mooroolbark were playing some good footy as well.
“We just wanted to win the game and get the job done and get control being down at 17 or 18 points at half time, the message was just to control it.”
Players including Chris Cerni, Andrew Renton and James Belo that have played under Buzaglo for a few years stood up.
“We’ve been through a lot together; it was a pretty tough time at the footy club five or six years ago and we could have gone a bit further backwards and we didn’t,” Buzaglo said.
“If you look at lots of the other clubs that were in a similar situation, these guys have stuck fat, stayed loyal and have been fantastic not only for me, but most importantly for the footy club as well.
“I will be gone, but the footy club is still there they will be great players for the footy club moving forwards as well and ‘Rents’ and ‘Cerns’ (have) probably a couple of years left.
“Dylan and James Belo, they are amazing people from an amazing family and they’re going to be absolutely fantastic for this footy club for a long time.”
Buzaglo has been part of the League for many years, first as a star player including featuring in the Roos’ 2002 top-tier premiership, an interleague captain and then a coach.
Buzaglo shared his best memories as a coach, including an 11-point victory over Lilydale at the Lilydale Sports Oval in Round 17, 2015 which saved the Roos from relegation, finishing a game clear of the Falcons.
“In terms of players it’s very hard, fantastic players in Premier Division even coming down a level really good players as well,” he said.
“The game against Lilydale was the first time to win over there (Lilydale Sports Oval) and that was pretty special … Lilydale ended up being relegated.
“Last week (Round 17) against a really good side in Doncaster East, a really good mate of mine Cameron Crowley was really fantastic, and his dad was battling cancer and unfortunately he passed away during the week.
“Fantastic mate, assistant coach and runner and to beat the top side with a fair bit of stuff going on during the week was pretty amazing, last week was fantastic.”