Tara Murray
Werribee Districts fairy tale run in the Western Region Football League division 1 didn’t get the perfect ending the club was after.
Having been 30 points down at half time in an elimination final, the Tigers fought back to beat Hoppers Crossing.
They then knocked out Deer Park and minor premierships, to win through to the grand final against Altona.
But the Tigers first WRFL senior premiership will have to wait at least another year, after strong performance by the Vikings.
The Tigers kicked the first three goals of the match. The Vikings kicked the next three to level scores on quarter time.
After that, it was the Vikings who had control of the game. They would eventually win, 10.21 (81)-9.4 (58) to lift their second season premiership.
Tigers coach Chris Gilham said in the end they were beaten by a better team on the day.
“We obviously wanted the fairy tale premiership after the run we’ve had by full credit to Altona,” he said.
“I said to the boys after the game, as much as right now hurts, still got a lot to be thankful for.
“There was a 10-15 minute period had after those three finals wins that were worth every part of today’s disappointment,
“We’re super proud of our club today. We didn’t win today, but we didn’t lose today.”
Gilham said a key start was a focus for them and they were able to do exactly that. He said the Vikings were able to absorb the pressure and then come at them and hit the scoreboard the other way.
“Credit to them with their pressure, he said. “They’ve got a couple of blokes that get off their man and intercept the ball. It’s been their strength all year, getting the ball back in the air.
“We tried to make it a bit of a chaos game at ground level, they controlled the air and probably controlled the result because of that.”
Rain started to fall in the middle two quarters which was the last thing the Tigers wanted. While it didn’t suit Altona’s game either, it meant the team that adjusted better first would benefit.
“We need to be able to use the ball,” Gilham said. “We need to be able to put a chain today and get a run and carry through that middle part of the ground.
“The rain comes… It made it a simple game where we wanted it to be chaos and fast. At the end of the day they were too good.”
Zak Busuttil and Andrew Panayi kicked two goals each for the Tigers.
Gilham highlighted a couple of their defenders Leigh Johnson and Sean Gregory as two of their better players.
He said it was hard to find standouts,.
“In general I don’t think we had any standouts, but we didn’t have any shockers,” he said.
“That’s been our motto, we want to be reliable, not remarkable. We had quite a lot of that.
“No one was poor, they were just better as a unit.”
Gilham said they would be better for this year. Captain Daniel Schibeci, Bailey Siwek and Connor Thar all missed the grand final, while they had given a number of younger players opportunities throughout the year.
“We’ve got some good player not playing and we think that we can get better, with guys coming back,” he said.
“We’ve found a few players and we’ve got a good group going forward and we’re excited by what the future holds.”
Gilham said they would look to take a leave out of Altona’s books as they head into next season.
“At a footy club all you want as a club you want people to be invested which we have in spades,” he said.
“We need to look at ways to get batter and go again next year and have a crack.
“The reason Altona win they’ve been up for four years and this is their first reward.
“You can’t rock up and have a good month and think you get it. You have to keep on rocking up, rocking up and eventually if you’re good enough you might get it.
“ They did that and hopefully we can do that next year.”
