Hillside coach Steve Kolyniuk kept his head when his team’s poor discipline threatened to make grand final day a mess.
The Sharks gave up an astounding five goals from 50m penalties,
one a 100m penalty, as tongues wagged at umpires, hits were late and
tempers flared.
But talent took over as Hillside responded to Moonee Valley’s
hitting the front in the third quarter by reeling off 10 unanswered
goals to secure victory.
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“I was getting a little bit nervous when (Moonee Valley) hit the front but we stuck to what we were doing,” Kolyniuk said.
“We thought about throwing things around but it’d got us this far so we stuck with it.
“We’re a very fit side and the conditioning by our fitness crew paid off.
“We were heavy favourites and it’s good to deliver . . . the guys understand they are a good team.”
Aisake O’hAilpin dominated the ruck but couldn’t always find his
teammates with the taps and midfielders such as Sam Sarkis, Nathan
Rayment, and best-on-ground medallist Michael Turner battling hard to
swing the midfield balance.
Fabio DiLizia led the scoring with eight majors but Jarrod Catania
kicked five goals from half forward, as did spearhead Paul Edwards, all
before half-time.
“Discipline was on our whiteboard, up there four times, and it meant four quarters of discpline,” Kolyniuk said.
“First, second, third quarter, no good. It cost us five goals, but
blokes get excited and it can be hard to keep emotions in check.
“We’ve got great under-18s and under-16s, the reserves didn’t lose
a game . . . I’ve spoken to some coaches in division 1 and they think
we can play finals next year.”
