Shepparton United might have lost to Mansfield on Saturday, but its night ended with positivity after seasoned coach Rob Osborne was announced as the club's new coach.
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Osborne, who is the twin brother of current Mooroopna coach Dale, coached Cobram between 2010 and 2012 and Waaia in 2015, and greatly impressed United's committee in charge of finding a new coach.
He was a long-time Mooroopna player, but also spent time playing with United after joining the club in 1999, and was part of the club's losing grand final side in 2000.
He will have United players Dwain Vidler and Shane Neaves as his assistant coaches, with Melbourne-based Neaves to take the club's Melbourne playing group training.
United president Craig Blizzard said Osborne's application had stood out from the pack.
"We're very pleased to be able to do it now," Blizzard said.
"It's fantastic, we've got to start looking forward to next season now, and this is so far ahead of when we've appointed coaches in the past.
"There were nine names (the committee) was interested in and they interviewed four. This bloke stood out on his own absolutely. He's quite professional and a strong-minded person."
Blizzard confirmed thought had been given to luring a coach with an AFL-playing background, but given the high price tag, he was satisfied the club was taking the right approach opting for a local option.
"We did look at players coming out of the AFL, we had a couple of names, but it was going to cost $50 000-plus and you can't do that," he said.
"We've got a young developing list and we need the room to recruit a few A-graders."
But the announcement came at the end of a tough day for the Demons in which Mansfield proved far too strong for them, recording a 33-point win.
The Eagles only kicked eight goals for the day, but that proved more than enough, a strong defensive effort holding United to three majors.
Having started the game two games back from the top six with three games to play, including one against Kyabram, Eagles coach Andrew Browne acknowledged the contest had been about experimenting rather than battling for finals.
"I thought we were okay without being excellent," he said.
"There's still a few things to work on, but we defended pretty well, we probably didn't score as fluently as we'd like, but a win's a win. We defended really well and dried up their ability to score.
"We just changed things up a bit obviously being in a position where we won't play finals, we experimented with guys in a few different positions. We had a couple of wins, and a couple that didn't work."
Part of the experimenting had Tyler Chisholm impress in his opportunity to play in the midfield, named in his side's best along with Lachie Williams, Ryan Bartlett and Patty Marks, with James Lawton (four goals) and Jacob Howes (three goals) strong.
"(Chisholm) is a smaller forward that's been playing at half-forward, but we played him a little bit in the midfield just to experiment and give ourselves another option," Browne said.
"We're lacking a little bit of midfield depth, so we want to explore our avenues and play him a bit more around the footy."
For United, Jye Chalcraft kicked two goals on his return to club football from NAB League duties, while Josh Kezerle, Liam Fiore and GVL 200-gamer Matt Rendina impressed.
THE GAME
Mansfield 2.1, 4.3, 7.6, 8.10 (58)
Shepparton United 1.1, 1.4, 2.7, 3.7 (25)
Goals
Mansfield: James Lawton 4, Jacob Howes 3, Tyler Chisholm.
Shepparton United: Jye Chalcraft 2, Tim Looby.
Best
Mansfield: Tyler Chisholm, Lachie Williams, Ryan Bartlett, Patty Marks, Luke Walsh, Guy Murray.
Shepparton United: Josh Kezerle, Liam Fiore, Matt Rendina, Cameron Calder, Jesse Cucinotta, Harrison Osborn.
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