St Mary’s has held off a fourth-quarter challenge from St Joseph’s to claim its seventh GFNL premiership, posting a 13-point win at GMHBA Stadium this (Friday) afternoon.
The Saints became the fourth team in ten completed seasons since 2014 to win four consecutive finals, replicating the club’s 2019 achievement of coming from an elimination final to secure the silverware.
After leading by as much as 27 points during the third quarter, following consecutive goals from Sam Bourke, the Saints saw their lead cut back to eight points when big man Joey Chaplin converted a goal on the run as Joeys threw caution to the wind.
However, St Mary’s won the next clearance and Bayley Cockerill roved the pack at the top of the goalsquare to push the margin back to 14 points, effectively sealing the deal.
“When the opposition do throw a bit of chaos, in regards to personnel and some moves and some shifts, it’s hard to counter that from a coaching point of view,” co-coach Luke Rayner told K rock Football.
“You’ve got to relay messages. You’ve got to get match-ups. There’s a whole range of things that have to happen.
“And then you obviously hand over to the players to a degree, in regards to can they handle a situation and can they find a way to get through it?
“I just thought our back six or seven all day were really outstanding.
“I’m not too sure what the inside 50 count will end up being.
“But, credit to those guys; they were just able to sort of continually repel right from the get-go.”
In his 150th game, St Joseph’s captain Al Hickey won the toss and kicked to the southern end in the first quarter.
The minor premier had its opening goal on the board inside four minutes thanks to Paddy De Grandi, who converted a set shot after taking a diving mark about 20m from goal.
After a nearly 15-minute arm-wrestle, Sam Bourke, who was carrying an abdominal injury, kicked the first of his game-high four goals for the afternoon to get St Mary’s on the board.
A goal from Mitch Chafer pushed Joeys’ lead to nine points, before a rare Matt Copley goal courtesy of a 100m penalty followed by another from Bourke gave the Saints a four-point lead at the first change.
It took 13 minutes into the second quarter for the first goal to arrive, courtesy of St Mary’s co-captain Jack Blood, giving his team the first double-figure lead of the contest.
That was cancelled out by Chafer’s second goal before the Saints again had the better of “red time”, with Copley’s second goal followed by an outstanding dribbling effort from the pocket by Elijah Wales.
St Mary’s went into the main break with a 14-point lead, which took on greater importance when heavy rain descended on GMHBA Stadium late in the half-time break and persisted throughout the third term.
Only three goals were kicked in the premiership quarter, with consecutive goals from Sam Bourke, including one where his clean pickup of the Sherrin belied the greasy conditions, extended the lead to 27 points.
However, Lewy Antonac kept St Joseph’s in touch when he converted a free kick just before time-on to cut the deficit to 20 points at three-quarter time.
Joeys had the first say in the final term thanks to a nice long-range finish by Felix Henderson, which was cancelled out by Saint Elliot MacDonald’s effort following the next centre bounce.
St Joseph’s defender Luke Webb was sent forward and kicked just his third goal of the season, before Chaplin’s snap raised hopes of an unlikely heist.
Externally, St Mary’s weren’t expected to challenge for a premiership after the departure of numerous big names at the end of 2024.
However, Rayner and the incoming Ben Boseley instilled a belief in the young Saints that they were good enough.
There are stars like Bourke, Paddy Dowling, Ryan Pendlebury and Brayden Ham.
But it has been the evenness of the group that carried the Saints to an unlikely flag.
“Throughout the whole year, the team balance has been a bit like that,” Boseley said.
“There’s always been players that have been standing out.
“But even today, it just shows you key moments.
“Elliott McDonald in the back half gets a stoppage for us when they were getting momentum. You’ve got Fletch (Hughes), who’s running sort of 80 per cent game time.
“‘Raz’ (Paddy Dowling) comes up after a broken nose and does his little bit.
“Today was symbolism of that whole year that everyone just performed at their level, and finding best players throughout the year has been very, very challenging, and today was no different.
Keidan Rayner, who played a shutdown role on dynamic St Joseph’s forward Hunter Lewis, not only got to share a special occasion with his coach father, but also won the Frank Fopiani Medal as best-on-ground.
“It was pretty unexpected,” he said. “I was pretty locked in to playing my role on a serious footballer in Hunter.
“To know ‘Fop’ (Connor Fopiani) and his old man, it was even more special.”
Earlier in the day, St Mary’s reserves also capped an impressive run from an elimination final to beat Newtown & Chilwell by 24 points.
Sam Christense, who was omitted from the senior team for the returning Nick Connors, kicked four goals and was awarded the best-on-ground medal.
X: @krockfootball
ST JOSEPH’S 2.3, 3.6, 4.9, 7.13 (55)
ST MARY’S 3.1, 6.2, 8.5, 10.8 (68)
GOALS: St Joseph’s: M. Chafer 2, P. De Grandi, L Antonac, J. Chaplin, L. Webb, F. Henderson
GOALS: St Mary’s: S. Bourke 4, M. Copley 2, J. Blood, E. Wales, E. MacDonald, J. Blood, B. Cockerill
