Promotion is one thing. Belonging is another. On a Friday night under lights at Eltham North Reserve, the Redbacks made the loudest possible argument that life in VPL1 fits us just fine.
Eight goals. A hat-trick. A scoreline that will live on for a long time.
Port Melbourne arrived at our patch carrying the weight of a difficult week. A change in the coach’s chair, a caretaker setup running the bench, and a squad missing several of its bigger names. The football world is a small one, and there is no joy in piling onto a side already wobbling. But this is sport, and on the night you beat what is in front of you. The Redbacks did so, emphatically.
Sharks defender Aidan Croucher turned the ball into his own net under pressure on twelve minutes. Whatever resistance Port had hoped to bring evaporated almost immediately.
Nine minutes later it was two. Nicky Edwards added a second, a clean strike that reflected how comfortably we were moving the ball into the final third. Then Billy Romas got his first of the night on 25 minutes. Three goals in 13 minutes and Port were already searching for a lifeline.
There was no lifeline coming.
Josh Dennett and Lewis Collins made it five, and the half time whistle came as a kind of mercy.
The second half opened with another own goal, this time from Diego Miranda Ciudad Real, and from there it became the Billy Romas show, with a classy double completing a gorgeous hat-trick. Romas now leads the VPL1 Golden Boot race, with an astonishing nine goals in 11 appearances.
For head coach Alan Mulcahy and assistant Alan Kearney, it was a proud and slightly bittersweet evening – watching the club they represented with distinction in Victoria’s top flight be torn apart by their newly promoted Redbacks. Football has a way of writing unique storylines.
The result leaves us in 4th place on 23 points – just three points off Northcote at the front of the pack. Two promotions in a row was incredible – three would be almost unthinkable. But after 12 games, the Redbacks have proven they are in the hunt.
There will be tougher tests ahead. But nights like this are worth celebrating. A packed home crowd, a hat-trick hero, and a scoreline that puts the rest of VPL1 on notice.
Billy Romas, take a bow. Redbacks, march on.
Up the ‘Backs.