WITH the class of 1993 watching, Werribee beat Port Melbourne for the second time this season, running out 20.16 (136) to 10.11 (71) winners on Sunday.
The Tigers were celebrating the 20th anniversary of their one and only senior premiership, won in 1993 when the competition was known as the VFA.
1993 PREMIERSHIP SPECIAL: Revisit Werribee’s VFA win 20 years on
Back in the present at Avalon Airport Oval, it was the Borough who looked the better side early.
Port kicked four of the first five goals of the game, with key forward Dean Galea indomitable. He kicked five of Port’s six for the quarter, but Werribee hit back with two goals to Ben Warren and one each to Majak Daw and Ben McKinley, to trail by 13 points at quarter time.
From that point, the Tigers controlled much of the contest. Four goals in the second term gave Werribee the lead, with Ben Ross and Brett Meredith getting plenty of the ball. Defender and state representative Jake Wilson received a knee to the midriff early in the term and on Monday was in hospital undergoing assessment.
Holding a four-point lead at half-time, Werribee broke the game open in the third term, kicking five goals to one to set up a 33-point margin.
Warren, Daw and Addam Maric were among the goalscorers in the final term as Werribee kicked another seven to stretch the margin to 65 by the final siren. The trio each kicked four, and Ben Brown added two, in a strong demonstration of the damage the Werribee forward line can do when the delivery up the ground was as good as it was on Sunday.
Ben Ross had 32 touches and was best on ground, Jordan Gysberts had 27 touches and Tim McGenniss 26. They were boosted by North Melbourne defenders Michael Firrito and Scott McMahon.
The win moved Werribee to outright fifth, four points behind Williamstown and two ahead of Port, with games against Northern Blues and Collingwood to come.
Coach Scott West was in a buoyant mood after the game.
“The run and overlap through the middle part of the ground was very good today. [McMahon and Firrito] have got the experience and the skill to play really good footy down back and we’ve got multiple targets up forward,” he said.
“We probably still need to get them to work together better, and if we can get that and their leading patterns and all those sorts of things right we’ll be even more dangerous.”
