IT was the match-turning move that ultimately allowed Altona Vikings coach Anthony Eames to declare ‘checkmate’ in the coaches’ box in Saturday’s division 1 grand final.
Towering ruckman Liam Gardiner fought one-out around the ground all game against Woodsmen duo Ben Perry and Jeremy Bond, and Eames decided it was time for the big man to ‘rest’ in the forward line midway through the last term.
It was part of a bigger plan to drag the dangerous Perry back into the defence, because the Woodsmen’s star had become a bit of a headache the longer the game wore on.
Having Gardiner’s length in the forward line would also provide the Vikings with an aerial target inside forward 50.
Both parts of the plan worked a treat. Gardiner reeled in a huge pack mark to goal, the Woodsmen reacted and sent Perry to defence. Gardiner, aptly nicknamed ‘Hollywood’, then repeated the dose to make it two goals in five critical last-quarter minutes to play a leading part in the Vikings first division 1 premiership.
“It was another tall they needed to man up on,” Gardiner said. “Perry came out of the ruck and came and took me on and that was the plan and it worked.
“I’ve kicked two goals in the last quarter and that’s a fairytale for me.” Gardiner’s football career is littered with right-place, right-time moments. It was in a Williamstown restaurant where he was a waiter in 2008 when his tall, athletic body frame was spotted by then Werribee coach Simon Atkins, who invited him to trial with the VFL club. He would earn a contract.
Gardiner might have been watching this grand final on the outer had it not been for his day job.
“I had [hip] surgery booked in for the start of the year. I postponed it due to work commitments,” he said.
The injury almost derailed his season. His understudy, the athletic Riak Riak, held down the ruck duties until the middle of August, figuring in the best players in four of nine games and unlucky not to be selected for the finals.
Straight from a Hollywood script, Gardiner came back into the side and four games later played in the Vikings’ first premiership at the level.
“This is the sweetest thing,” he said.
“Ten months of hard work and to come down to one point at the 28-and-a-half minute mark of the last quarter in a grand final, you don’t feel much but elation.”
