"But, for a young side, it is about being able to sustain that effort and that quality over four quarters.

"They got away from us a little in the last quarter but we did get to show the type of football we can play when we are on our game."

Stewart's response had every reason to be upbeat, their same opponent smashed them by 208 points (32-18-210 to 0.2-2) midway through 2018 sending the young club to an all-time low.

It came the season after the had won the premiership in the division below and it wasn't their only shocker.

There was also the embarrassing 177-nil scoreline - yes, nil - against Warners Bay. Maitland finished with three wins for the season to finish second last on the ladder, a far cry from their triumph of a year earlier.

Hundred point losses were commonplace. But there were circumstances.

"After the 2017 season they consolidated the competitions from three divisions to two, and as premiers we were promoted," club spokesman Kevin Greaves explained.

"It was a big step up to a significantly stronger division.

"At the same time we lost about 12 or 14 of our premiership players who retired or moved away.

"And we looked at our juniors and they were two to three years away from being able to step up. It was a perfect storm."

So the club sat down and looked at their options and decided to take some short term pain form long term gain.

They would bring their juniors through and accept the consequences. Like 177-nil for instance.

Along came Ben Stewart who applied for the coaching job along with Dustin Spriggs and their plan for the team's future melded exactly with the club's long-term strategy.

"Look, let's not be cute ... there were some pretty dark days," Greaves said.

"This is a strong competition, and the top sides have been working on their squads for eight or 10 years.

"They have representative players, players who have AFL experience, or who have played at a high standard in Western Australia or Victoria.

"They have men's physiques going up against our kids who are 16, 17 and 18 years of age. We even had a 15 year old out there.

"So yeah, it has been tough and our dressing room was pretty gloomy at times. But we would go in here - the coaches, officials, whatever - and we would have positive things to say. Talk them up, made sure they kept working hard."

Goals changed. No longer was it about winning, but smaller things: keeping up forward pressure, making tackles, one on one victories, stringing three or four passages of play together.

It mightn't seem much ... baby steps really ... but it all adds up.

Two weeks ago the undersized Maitland Saints beat Warners Bay, kicking four goals in the last 10 minutes for a thrilling victory. The same Warners Bay who beat them 177-nil 12 months earlier.

Now that's progress, and the first sign of a very bright light at the end of the tunnel.

Matching Terrigal Avoca, a team which has scored 1051 points and conceded just 221 in eight games, is another.

But the thing with the Maitland Saints, the thing most people don't realise, is the sheer depth of talent they have coming through.

Ten of their junior players, for example, are in the Swans Academy.

"We have some exceptional talent coming through. Trevant Bob is 15, a wonderfully clean, speedy winger who's very good overhead.

"His brother Jai Rory, he's probably 17 or 18, and a top forward kicking a lot of goals.

"Sam Jordan on the backline is from our 17s, Wally Pankhurst is a quality winger and he's just turned 18, Tom Grimmer is one of our best talls and he's only 19.

"Even our captain Riley Newstead is only 19. He goes down and helps coach he juniors.

"We were aiming to be at our best in 2025 and win the premiership in 2025. And while we've had tough days, there's nothing that has happened to change our view. Far from it, in fact."

And now, to top it off, the club is back at home for the next handful of games after having to play away while the round was revamped.

Things are looking up.