By Jed Lanyon
Some footy players are lucky enough to kick 20 goals in a season, for defenders, 20 goals might be a nice haul for a career in local footy. But Coldstream’s Darcy Fritsch pulled off a bag of 20 goals on Saturday 24 April in a monster game against Kilsyth.
The Coldstream forward backed up an impressive five goal Round 1 performance by kicking six goals in the first half of the game, before piling on another 14 in the Cougars’ 171 point win in the 4th Division Seniors in the EFNL.
“It was pretty amazing. I’m still coming to terms with it to be honest, it felt pretty good,” Fritsch said.
“In the first half I kicked six, so I was pretty happy with that and thought I could try and get to 10, which is the most I’ve kicked.”
Fritsch kicked another seven goals in the third quarter, smashing his previous personal best.
“People started to muck around and starting shouting ‘you’ll get to 20’, I thought no way but it sort of kept coming.”
Fritsch ended up passing the club’s record of 16 goals, amassing 20.4 mostly from set shots.
Fritsch’s story went crazy on social media as he received a lot of media attention following his impressive game
“The boys at the club are getting into me about it for all the media. I think I’ll cop a few fines on Thursday night.
“Hopefully I can back it up with three or four goals,” he said.
And he did just that as Coldstream faced Silvan on Saturday 1 May, where Fritsh kicked three in a 61 point win. Speaking prior to the game, Fritsch said he was a “little bit nervous” and felt a lot of pressure to follow up the incredible feat.
Fritsch is the younger brother of Melbourne Demons star Bayley Fritsch. After outsourcing the rest of his teammates and the opposition combined, he went along to the MCG to watch his brother play in the Anzac Eve clash.
“I called him on Saturday night after his game and he was really supportive. It gives me something to brag about because it’s something he’s never done.”
Fritsch spent some time on the Casey Demons list in the VFL playing a practice match. Struggles with injuries saw him return to enjoying his footy at a local level close to home.
He said while he’s focusing on his footy, he still aspires to play the game at a higher level and credits his current form to getting his body right after a big preseason.
“It’s definitely sort of always been a dream of mine but was shut down a bit because of injuries. Having this year back at my home club, hopefully I can get some confidence behind me and we’ll see what happens next year.”
