Sport
4 April, 2025
Options get the Sharp focus
BRIDGEWATER made it to the Loddon Valley preliminary final last season but limped out of the premiership race with a big loss to Marong. The team’s talisman, full-forward and co-coach Lachlan Sharp, limped his way through the latter part of the...
BRIDGEWATER made it to the Loddon Valley preliminary final last season but limped out of the premiership race with a big loss to Marong.
The team’s talisman, full-forward and co-coach Lachlan Sharp, limped his way through the latter part of the season, too, struggling with leg injuries despite managing to kick 138 goals in his first season with the Mean Machine.
In 2025, he takes over the coaching role alone, and at the same time hopes he won’t be alone in kicking winning scores.
Sharp, 34, is open in saying he’s not focused on another race to the century with Bears Lagoon Serpentine’s Josh Mellington, or anyone else.
His aim is to develop a multi-pronged attack that can stand up if he is struggling to kick goals himself.
Elsewhere on the ground, the Mean Machine has scored something of a coup with the signing of Luke Ellings from Kangaroo Flat in the Bendigo league.
He joins Bridgewater to play with his brother Jacob, who missed last season with an ACL injury.
Sharp has been impressed with the way the club’s younger players have returned to training after the Christmas break.
He pointed to Darcy Wood, who won the club’s 2023 senior B&F as “a real watch” and said Harry McKinley was among the younger footballers who were the future of the club.
Another bonus is Xavier Walsh, who is coming off an injury-plagued 2024, and is like a new recruit, Sharp believes.
He said he wanted the Mean Machine to be a team that the community was proud of, and was looking forward to trying to bridge the gap to the top two teams, Marong and Pyramid Hill.
With Sharp, Bo Alexander, Jack Neylon and Joe Mayes all picked in last season’s Loddon Valley team of the year, Bridgewater looks like a strong contender in 2025.
You can’t go past the captain-coach, whose goal kicking exploits have graced the Bendigo and Loddon Valley leagues for more than a decade.
Sharp’s ability at ground level is exceptional, and add that to strong marking and accurate kicking as you have the prototype star full-forward.
His leadership, too, is critical to the Mean Machine’s fortunes.
Last season he was co-coach with former Hawthorn player Rick Ladson, and his impact on the field was clear to see, with Ladson coaching from the bench.
But Ladson also missed several games in the middle of the season after major knee surgery, giving Sharp a taste of solo coaching.
In 2025, with the role to himself, he will have more to worry about than his own form, but no one can doubt he will still be leading the scoring charts at club, and possibly league level.
Sharp has kicked an astonishing 1141 goals in 258 games — almost 1000 of them at Strathfieldsaye in the Bendigo league, where he won the competition best-and-fairest as well as the goal kicking award three times.
A medial ligament strain that impacted him late in the season has healed, promising big things for 2025.
Luke Ellings moves to Bridgewater from Kangaroo Flat, where he was a part of the Bendigo inter-league team last season.
He joins his older brother Jake, who missed 2024 with an ACL injury. Luke is a strong inside midfielder with excellent ball use who played 16 games with Kangaroo Flat in 2024, and was named in the best players 14 times.
Footy is something of a family affair for Luke, who joined Kangaroo Flat to play under his father Michael, who was coach.
He was the Roos’ highest vote-getter in the Michelsen Medal league best and fairest award.
Before that he played with Gisborne, winning the 2022 flag with the Bulldogs.
Ellings senior was sacked as coach after one season, freeing Luke to move elsewhere, and the Mean Machine felt like home with brother Jake returning after missing a year.
Luke is another player to have come through the elite under-18 system, having played with the Bendigo Pioneers.
Bridgewater football team has been winning premierships in the Loddon Valley since 1905, and has 22 flags in all, including the incredible run of seven in a row from 2010-16.
The Mean Machine has the most premierships in the league — ahead of Newbridge with 16 — and the seven flags on the trot is also a Loddon Valley record.
Between 1908 and 1935 Bridgewater played in the Korong District league, winning four flags before returning to the Loddon Valley.
That seven-premiership stretch also included four Frank Harding medals for league best-and-fairest (Adam Parry twice, Andrew Collins and Zeb Broadbent) and four goal kicking awards (Brad Rohde twice, Alex Collins and Andrew Collins).
Josh Martyn and Lachlan Sharp have won league top goal kicker since then, with Sharp finishing joint runner up in the Harding Medal last season.
With such a long history of success, it’s perhaps surprising that no player originating from Bridgewater has ever played at VFL/AFL level, although a number have graced the red and white after their careers in the big league.