HOPPERS Crossing has two new pieces of silverware to suggest its future in the Western Region Football League is paved with gems.
The Warriors are the undisputed kings of under-18 football in the west after bullying their way to the under-18 A and B flags at the weekend.
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Warriors U18A coach and senior captain Brad Murphy told the Weekly his club had plenty to look forward to when the talented group of youngsters graduated to senior level.
“The future of the club is looking good,” he said. “A lot of these kids will be coming up next year. The depth of the club is in good hands.”
All eyes were on the Warriors U18A side on Saturday morning, when they rekindled a healthy rivalry with Altona at Avalon Airport Oval and came away with a 25-point win in the grand final.
The Warriors lost to the Vikings earlier in the finals and, despite winning the minor premiership and being the No. 1-ranked side all season, the tipsters had short memories as they tagged them as underdogs.
Murphy said his players only had to pick up a copy of the WRFL Record on the way into the ground to get all the motivation they needed. “We knew we had our backs to the wall in that grand final.
“Altona were the favourites and I pointed out to the boys before the game that hardly no one in the Record tipped us. It was 11 from 12 who didn’t tip us and that was a bit of a motivating factor.
“We wanted to show everyone what we were capable of and the boys went out there and from the first second of the game, they were on.”
The Warriors posted a massive 12 scoring shots in the opening term to leave the Vikings speechless.
The only issue was inaccuracy — 5.7 was not the kind of return Murphy wanted from his side.
The Vikings needed no second invitation to get back into the game by half-time.
The Nick Waddell-coached side turned it on with a four goals to one in the second term and it was ‘game on’ at half-time.
Whatever Murphy said to his players beneath the grandstand at Chirnside Park did the trick.
The Warriors produced their a stunning six goals to one third term and never looked back.
“The third quarter was something you’ve never witness before at under-18 level,” Murphy said. “We absolutely dominated the game. We were big on pressure and intensity and making every moment count.”
Michael Maglogiannis will never forget the impact he had in a remarkable third quarter.
The livewire forward was simply untouchable for 30 minutes. He pulled out all the tricks in the book to boot five of his six goals in the term.
“Mags would be the shortest player on our list — a 169-centimetre forward pocket — but he’s very quick, tough at the footy and has good goal sense and great balance,” Murphy said.
“He marked, kicked goals off the ground, around the body, goals from 50, he was just unbelievable. They chucked a couple of opponents on him and they couldn’t stop him.”
Silky-skilled Nick Jones got his hands on the best-on-ground medal for his poise across half-back and through the midfield for the Warriors.
Corey Muscat played a vital role in shutting down Vikings danger player Daniel O’Leary.
Blake Jago, Jack Dorgan and Brandon Donald were the other players to figure in the Warriors best.
“They’re a great bunch of kids,” Murphy said of his premiership side. “A lot of hard work has paid off for these young men.”
The Warriors B’s had an emphatic 53-point win over Yarraville-Seddon Eagles in the under-18 division 2 grand final at Watton Street on Sunday.
The Warriors had a lot of ground to make up when they got together for the first day of preseason and the players showed tremendous commitment to coach Rob May to turn the operation on its head.
“It was a great effort by the B’s,” Murphy said. “They finished near enough to the bottom last year. This year they had a very good season and won all bar one game and a cruisy way of winning the grand final.”
Steven Scolaro, Michael Hart and James Farrugia, who booted three goals, were the Warriors standouts in the decider.
