GLENORDEN was showing signs of fatigue as early as the third quarter before it was mown down in a heartbreaking 19-point loss to Coburg Districts in the Western Region Football League division 2 elimination final at Avalon Airport Oval on Sunday.
The Hawks burst out to an encouraging 20-point lead midway through the third term after trailing narrowly at the half-time break, but as soon as they seemingly had one foot in the semi-finals, the cracks started to appear.
A freak concussion to three-goal full-forward Nathan Schmidt – he ran into a goal post – was a telltale sign t it was about to turn pear shaped for the Hawks. It created a domino affect with players in brown and gold going down left, right and centre with cramp, leaving the side short-handed for a brief period in the last quarter.
Coach Nick Diker had an inkling his side was in trouble because of its over-reliance on its star three of Jesse
Fortune, Dashmir Barolli and Matthew Antonello, particularly in the third, when they were at their most dominant.
They were already stretched to the limits without suspended captain Chris Scudamore and centre half-forward Rhys Bucktin.
“They were our three best by a country mile,” Diker said. “They were unbelievable in that third quarter and would’ve had 15 touches each. I was thinking in that quarter that these poor blokes can’t just keep doing this on their own as guys kept dropping off around them.”
Diker was right. The Hawks hung on until the 10-minute mark of the last quarter but had nothing left in the tank for the last 20.
“To Coburg’s credit, when we were up and about, they stuck with us,” Diker said. “Even in the last we were looking good, they were good enough to run over the top of us.”
The Hawks have taken giant strides back to earning the respect of the other sides in the WRFL this year.
They were last year’s whipping boys in division 1 and a rebuild in the second tier could not come quickly enough.
But, no matter which division the Hawks were playing, they were starting from scratch with a new coach, support staff and a heavy influx of players.
“I grabbed a blank canvas at the start of the year with not one player in a position,” Diker said.
“We’ve recruited 35 players to the club and tried to make a team out of that including the existing guys.”
Diker has been on an incredible ride with his players since the first day of pre-season.
The journey did not take him to his preferred destination, but it has set the club up for a brighter future.
“It’s all upwards for this club,” he said. “We’ll be bigger, better and stronger next year, and that’s my goal.”
Diker choked up when addressing his team after the loss.
He could see the disappointment on the faces of his players and it got to him.
“It’s an emotional game footy,” he said. “I started speaking to the boys and I noticed tears in two or three of the guys after the game.
“It hit me deep in the heart because it actually meant a real lot to these boys and that’s awesome for a coach to see.
“Of course, I couldn’t help myself, the boys have been giving it to me all night because I just went ‘look, I’m rapt with what you have achieved this year and us as a group what we’ve achieved’. I looked up and I seen the tears and said ‘sorry boys, I’m done’.”
The Hawks are seething over the tribunal process that saw Scudamore and Bucktin miss the Saturday’s final.
The suspensions were hanging over the players from a melee in the Wyndham derby against Wyndhamvale in round 15.
“We’re appealing both those decisions,” Diker said.
