You haven't heard songs belted out much louder than the Launceston Blues' tune on Saturday.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
After losing their first three games of the State League season, including a 162-point round one loss, Launceston defeated Lauderdale 8.7 (55) to 6.16 (52) at Lauderdale Oval.
Coach Mitch Thorp couldn't have been prouder and called it a character-building win.
"I must admit I've been doing this for a little while and it was probably the happiest I've seen a group of young men," he said of the round four victory.
"Our oldest player was 25 and that was Brodie Palfreyman. We had five debutants and obviously with the start of the season that we've had - we were humiliated in round one - for the character to be shown the way it was (impressed me)."
Thorp elaborated on what the Blues had to overcome to secure the win.
"Boyd Savage broke his leg in the second quarter and we had two hamstring (injuries) before half-time so we were down to one on the bench," he said.
The coach noted the Blues were also without Dylan Riley and ruck Jake Kilby.
The coach shed light on how Launceston got it done.
He said in the opening three rounds an opposition forward had got on top of the Blues.
Thorp noted North Launceston's Harvey Griffiths kicked seven in round one, Kingborough's Tyler Carter kicked four in round two and Clarence's Josh Green kicked seven last weekend.
"We thought the entry particularly from stoppages was becoming a bit too pure," Thorp said.
"So we just threw a few extra numbers around the ball to make it a bit more of a scrap and make it really difficult for Lauderdale to transition the ball fluently.
"We thought if we can execute that, we could turn it into a low-scoring game and give ourselves a chance when we had our looks inside-50."
He praised Rocky Barron and Ben Hyatt who kicked three goals each and said the Blues had been building to their great team performance.
"We certainly didn't expect round one to happen the way it did but there were pieces of round two and three that we saw that we were capable," Thorp said.
"But to do it for four quarters (was great)."
Isaac Hyatt was named the Blues' best and Thorp said he laid 14 tackles.
"He's probably been our best player to this point of the year, he's just been so tough inside the contest and really led by example," the coach said.
Lauderdale have a 1-3 win-loss record this season.