Finals Footy

It is the time of year that it all has been leading up to. Seven weeks ago we had a team meeting and dinner to discuss our goals for the home stretch and finals. Three past players spoke about not taking the opportunity in front of us for granted. Finals footy does not come around as often as you think and before you know it you have retired without a premiership. The club's last premiership came in 2001, but now we have a chance at 2 premierships in the same year. The Senior side finished the season on top of the Division 3 ladder, 2 games clear of second place Hurstbridge. The Reserve side finished in 3rd place behind Hurstbridge and South Morang.

I think the biggest difference between footy down under and footy in the states is the weather. In the states footy is a summer sport, but here it is a winter sport. This past week leading up to this weekend's finals games has been an emotional storm. With rain clouds in the forecast all week, we went into training on Tuesday night in semi hurricane conditions. Hard driving rain and a pounding wind could not keep us off the training track. We've played in some cold, wet windy conditions over the season, but nothing has been as bad as Nationals in Colorado last year.
Thursday night the weather let up a bit, but we were all dealt a sad blow. Coach called us in for a huddle at the start of training and informed us that the father of 2 brothers, who are the finest and most loyal clubmen at Parkside, was suffering from lung cancer and only had a short time to live. Friday morning we got the news that he had passed away, these 2 footy games now took on a new level of meaning, we all wanted to show our teammates that we have their backs whatever they need.

The Senior side was to set the tone in their game on Saturday afternoon. Walking in to the locker room pre game I could tell immediately that eveyone was focused on the task at hand. I knew right then and there that we would win. The boys came out on fire led by Jamie Gresham (the good Gresh) in the first half. Squizzy was hard at the footy as usual making plays all over the ground. We really set the tone early and never looked back, leading by as many as 10 goals at one stage. Dallas made his comeback from a 2 week suspension, making his presence felt early and often, kicking 6 goals. Darren Gresh performed some of his patented acrobatic chest marks and really shut things down in the back line. We ended up winning by 4 goals and after the final siren we paid tribute to our clubmen's father by walking over to the family, as a team, to show our support and thank them for their support all season long. Their mom has not missed a single game all season, she is clearly our number one supporter.

So of course she was at our reserve side game today to watch her other son play finals footy. We had probably our strongest side since round 2 and were confident going in to the game. We beat this team 3 weeks earlier so we knew their game style and vice versa, the x factor was the wind. It was blowing across the ground and had a dramatic affect on our goal kicking. Our midfield was in control early, but we managed only 1 goal to 6 behinds for the first quarter, while they were only able to manage 2 points. The 2nd quarter was more of the same and we had a 3 goal lead with 5 minutes to go in the half and that's when we lost our cool a bit. A couple dumb mistakes and a bad bounce found us tied going into halftime. Frustration was in the locker room, but the confidence was also still there.

We came out focused and determined to start the 3rd, but despite all our pressure we could not find a way to kick the ball through the big sticks, instead we had to settle for 17 behinds for the day. With a 2 goal lead at 3 quarter time we knew it was time to stand up and fight for our footy lives, next week is not guaranteed to anyone. It was gut check time and in our huddle before starting the 4th quarter we talked about all the hard work and sacrifice we made this season, it was time to put it on the line. We outplayed them again, but a couple costly penalties were keeping them hanging around. It came down to the final 5 minutes, we had a 4 point lead and everyone was desperate to get their hands on the footy. Shannon got a hold of it and knew exactly what to do. Dodging one defender he dashed inside the forward 50 from the wing and steadied himself to kick the game winning goal from about 35 meters. Great goal, great win!!!