Tara Murray
It’s a story of from last to first for Hoppers Crossing as it won its first Western Football League division 1 premiership since 2004 on Saturday.
The Warriors won just two games last season and only avoided relegation as no team was relegated at the end of last season.
They started slowly under new coach Jared Polec before qualifying for finals in fifth spot.
The Warriors won three straight elimination finals to win through to the grand final against Werribee Districts, which was going for a second straight premiership.
The grand final turned out to be a classic.
Hoppers Crossing led by 27 points at half time before the Tigers started to come. It was back to one point at the last break.
Both sides had their chances to get the win, but it was the Warriors, who were in front when the siren went, winning 13.12 (90)-14.5 (89).
Warriors president John Semertzidis said it was an amazing feeling and that they can’t believe what they were able to achieve.
“We’re still scratching our heads,” he said. “How is that even possible?
“We are so impressed and in another world at the moment. Bottom to top and winning the flag.
“It is crazy. Finishing fifth as well and winning it from fifth is an even bigger achievement again. It has been awesome and we couldn’t have asked for anything more.”
Semertzidis said the game was a bit pulsating as they had to watch the Tigers come at them.
The game seemed all the way of the Warriors at the break having kicked nine goals to five.
But as all good teams, the Tigers didn’t give up and got themselves back into the game
“A few decisions didn’t go our way,” Semertzidis said. “They then got on a bit of a roll and they then got a couple of quick ones.
“To be fair Werribee would say that we deserved to win as we played much better all game. The last couple of minutes was tense. To be honest, they had a chance to win it in the last 30 seconds they had a chance to break through in th the middle and they did and if it bounced their way they would have been on.
Semertzidis said the nerves in the last 15 minutes were pretty full on.
Harry Maguire kicked four goals for the Warriors, while Riley Kitchen kicked three and Riley Fisher two goals.
Jed Anderson was awarded the best on ground medal.
Semertzidis said he thought Harley Armstrong-Weston was outstanding and clearly one of the best on groun.
The premiership was the club’s first senior once since 2004.
“Twenty years, it was awesome,” he said. “We’d been to a few grand finals since then, Deer Park was dominating that era didn’t have a chance to win one.
“For the whole group, the community of Hoppers Crossing, the spectators there, it was amazing.
Semertzidis said he was expecting to see a celebrations for a few days to come.
