St Mary’s impressive recent record against Newtown & Chilwell has continued, booking a berth in the GFNL preliminary final with a 25-point win.
In another clash affected by a northerly wind, the Saints restricted the Towners to just one goal from the midpoint of the second quarter to claim an 8.13 (61) to 4.12 (36) result and set-up a meeting with Colac.
It was St Mary’s fifth consecutive win over Newtown & Chilwell, and their 14th in 16 meetings with their rivals over the past decade.
The win sets up a meeting with Colac, who denied the Saints the double chance by 1.23 per cent on the final day of the home-and-away season, and comes 12 months after the club exited the 2024 premiership race in straight sets and farwelled a large chunk of experience.
“I’m super proud of the group,” co-coach Luke Rayner told K rock Football.
“It’s well documented, I suppose, in terms of what we did lose.
“But, I guess the exciting part for this group is, one, it’s been the ability for us to have to get games into younger players.
“Two, as the season’s grown older, they’ve got more comfortable and they’re playing well at the level.
“But, three, what it’s done, I think, is create this level of connection amongst the group where it’s pretty much everyone is equal, and I think everyone’s really respectful of that and really understanding of that.
“So then, when you get into games where you’ve got to grit and you’ve got to grind and you’ve got to stay connected and you’ve got to keep communicating effectively and you’ve got to be positive, I think it’s off the back of that team ethos that gets built over the journey of a season.
“And to the credit of this group, they’ve been able to do that.”
Acting Newtown & Chilwell captain Ned Harris won the toss of the coin and surprised the majority of the crowd when he chose to kick into the wind.
The Eagles did well to hold the Saints to one goal through the opening 20 minutes, but conceded two goals in time-on, with Liam Nash finding one at the other end, to trail by 17 points after a 36-minute first quarter.
Jedd Coburn and Connor Fopiani kicked two majors in the first half of the second quarter to help reduce the margin to two points.
However, goals from Saints duo Elijah Wales and Paddy Dowling pushed the margin back out to 15 points, and the Towners never got any closer.
Their only goal of the second half came after the final siren from Coburn.
Post-game, coach Steve Johnson explained the logic behind the decision to have the second use of the breeze.
“We haven’t started first quarters all that well when we have kicked with the wind, and you know that the pressure is going to be on the footy.
At this time of the year, in particular, there’s going to be a lot of scrimmages and stoppages and a fair bit of chaos.
“And sometimes it takes teams, you know, 15 minutes to settle.
“Even last week, I thought St Mary’s, it took them 16, 17 minutes to settle in that first quarter, and they went bang, bang, bang.
“And I just thought that if we could have a plan to try and shut them down and come in three goals down, and you think it’s probably a five-goal wind, we’ve done a great job.
“We trained it through the week, so I wanted to roll in with what we’d trained and just try and execute.
“So we took a bit of a punt. If I had the chance to do it again, I’d do it again.”
Michael Rudd was a standout for St Mary’s, especially playing behind the football when Newtown & Chilwell had the breeze, proving virtually impassable.
Captain Jack Blood was also important at the contest, while Sam Bourke constantly provided a target out of defence when the Saints kicked into the wind.
Mitch Diamond worked hard across half-back, while Harris’ battle with Blood was a highlight on an afternoon where there was little spectacle.
The only downside for St Mary’s was a knee injury suffered by 2019 grand final hero Nick Connors, which he will have scanned this week.
However, the Saints will regain playing assistant coach Ryan Pendlebury from an ankle injury for their meeting with the Tigers.
X: @krockfootball
NEWTOWN & CHILWELL 1.0, 3.4, 3.7, 4.12 (36)
ST MARY’S 3.5, 5.7, 7.11, 8.13 (61)
GOALS: Newtown & Chilwell: J. Coburn 2, C. Fopiani, N. Caracella
GOALS: St Mary’s: P. Dowling 2, J. Travaglini, B. Ham, H. McMahon, E. Wales, E. MacDonald, C. Sprague
BEST: Newtown & Chilwell: M. Diamond, N. Harris, L. Morey, L. Nash, C. Wilkinson, G. Bove
BEST: St Mary’s: M. Rudd, J. Blood, S. Bourke, E. Wales, B. Ham, C. Lang
