IT was among the most remarkable results in NAB League history, but one the Bendigo Pioneers were quietly confident about. Ask coach Danny O’Bree, and he’ll tell you his side’s epic upset of flag fancy, Oakleigh, had been brewing for a while yet.

In what proved a fitting end to a Wildcard Round headlined by upsets, Bendigo capped off the madness with its 12-point defeat of the Chargers, who had been the competition’s reigning premier since 2019. The result meant four of five lower-ranked sides earned finals qualification.

While 100 minutes of hard, honest footy and an abundance of belief was seemingly all it took, O’Bree says the victory was largely a result of the team’s shift in mindset.

“I think it started about six weeks ago.” he said “We had a real change in mindset, we had a meeting (about) thinking and getting back to good standards. So we changed some ways that we were training, turning up on game day, etcetera. I think it’s just been continually building.

“At the start of the week we were really mindful about the country-versus-metro aspect and what country teams really stand for. One of our assistant coaches played at Oakleigh when he was 18 so he always feared the country teams and he made that known to the group, and we’ve wanted to come with that mentality that if they were going to take it then they’d have to earn it.

“I definitely think it’s an upset, but we’ve had a lot of confidence and belief in the way we play.”

Though an army of “soldiers” helped Bendigo storm to a rare postseason berth, O’Bree says the standard has been set by skipper Harvey Gallagher, who was born six days after the region’s last finals appearance, in 2003.

Having cut his teeth as a midfielder-forward, the speedy over-ager has found a niche in defence recently. His 42 disposals and 13 rebound 50s in Wildcard Round were indicative of the type of leader he has become.

“If you look back at our last four or five games, our captain Harvey Gallagher has clearly been our best,” O’Bree said. “We have an internal award in regards to encapsulating that team orientation and the team spirit, and he’s won it for three weeks in a row. I’m tipping he’ll win it again.

“He’s really lead from the front and we did put it on the leaders back in that meeting six weeks ago, and they really ensured they were leading from the front… he’s got a lot of soldiers that are working with him.”

Gallagher is not the only one who has proven his dexterity when it comes to adjusting to different roles on the fly. The Pioneers coaching staff shifted a few magnets on Sunday, with that versatility paying off in the crunch moments.

Gun midfielder Harley Reid was the target of heavy opposition attention, but thrived in his midfield-forward rotation before shifting back as he did for Vic Country. Jason Gillbee was another leader trusted to make a difference away from his usual post, and given he “(has) to take the hits for the bad moves”, O’Bree was more than happy to take credit for these successful ones.

“It’s funny, we spoke about it during the week and we highlighted to our team the versatility that we have,” he said. “Jason Gillbee two years ago went forward and kicked three goals in the last quarter, we moved him to full forward in this game and he kicked one from the boundary.

“Harley went back and it just shows the versatility that we’ve got in our team. The players are so coachable, and the understanding of each position we’ve got on the ground is really significant and the beauty about our team.”

Another key factor in the win was Bendigo’s clearance dominance against an Oakleigh midfield chock-full of prime movers. All-up, the Chargers boast double-digit representatives across the draft combine lists – a factor O’Bree was had both “envy” and “respect” for. Still, the Pios played to their strengths.

“It always starts in the middle, and we had to apply a lot of pressure because they’ve got a significant amount of talent through there,” O’Bree said. “We just had to try and combat that as much as we could.

“Then when it got to the outside, we think that’s where our strength is, our ability to move the footy and our speed. We also said that they’re such a significantly good offensive team that we had to fight fire with fire, so we had to be strong in defence but better than them in attack.”

As for what’s next, a dance with the Tasmania Devils awaits. The Apple Isle program finished the regular season in second, boasting a 10-3 record. The two teams have met before this season, and it was the Devils who got up by 69 points on that day.

Though the Round 11 result does not bode particularly well for O’Bree’s Pios, plenty has changed since then.

“I think we learned a lot from our last encounter with Tassie,” he said. “They’re big boys and they’re really aggressive and physical. We were playing a lot of our bottom-agers at that stage so we’ve got a lot of our 18 and 19-year-old players back in the team now, so it is a different dynamic.

“We’ve brought in a couple of the 16s and we’ll bring another one in next week, and I think that’s the beauty about it is we keep finding these kids that are stepping up to the challenge and not only rising to the occasion, but they’re playing their role – that’s the most significant thing.”

Bendigo will hope players continue to step up to the challenge, especially with a few key players under injury clouds. Gillbee came into Wildcard Round with a niggle, while Reid has his ankle attended to on the day, and Malik Gordan also battled through a knock. It’d be difficult to write them off now, though.