A WEEK is a long time in football as Bright have turned last week’s loss to Greta into a huge win at home against Benalla All Blacks on Saturday.

No less than six forced changes due to injury and illness caused a major change in personnel, but it didn’t harm the Mountain Men’s ability to hit the scoreboard in their 23.21 (159) to 1.1 (7) victory.

Benalla brought the pressure and intensity early in the first quarter and caused Bright to make some skill errors.

Although the home side’s class shone through from this point, their midfield dominance could only be turned into nine goals for the half, despite producing 23 scoring shots.

Bright were much more efficient after half-time and piled on the pain to produce 14 second-half goals to run away with a 152-point margin in their favour.

Luke Quirk (eight goals) and Cooper Thomason (six) did the bulk of the scoring, while midfielders Clay Cambridge-Dillon and Max Rampling each chipped in with two majors and found plenty of their own ball around the ground, as did James Love and Dale Breeding.

In what was a massive day for the club at Pioneer Park, senior football was sandwiched between three junior football games, five games of netball and four premiership reunions, which included Bright’s most recent senior football premiership in 2004.

The day was capped off with a guest appearance from boxing champion Sam Soliman and a social function in the evening.

United Bright Football Netball Club president Gerard Gray was thrilled with how the day panned out.

“As a committee, a lot of work goes on behind the scenes for days like that to come together, and the efforts from our many volunteers were amazing,” Gray said.

“There were so many highlights on the day, but to have three games of junior football leading into senior football set the whole day up.

“This just shows that being involved with a tightly knit club like ours is about so much more than playing sport – the happiness on everyone’s face throughout the day and night was pretty special.”

A second home game in as many weeks for the Mountain Men will see them host eighth-placed Moyhu this Saturday afternoon, while the reserves are returning to the field after a bye last weekend.