PICTURE GALLERY: Deer Park v Spotswood grand final
UPDATE: Deer Park is the first club in the history of the Western Region Football League division 1 to land the premiership with an undefeated season.
The Lions are the kings of the jungle for the second year running after their star-studded line-up obliterated Spotswood by 77 points in a desperately lop-sided grand final at Chirnside Park in Werribee on Saturday.
Perfection was achieved both on the season as a whole and on the biggest day of the calendar.
More reports to come
The Lions blitzed from the outset to record an incredible 48 scoring shots to 21.
They produced a brand of football that rendered them almost untouchable.
“It’s history in the making so I’m rapt to be a part of it,” Lions veteran Luke Summers told Star Weekly.
“This is the ultimate – an unbelievable feeling.”
For the last time Deer Park achieved a premiership repeat, you have to go all the way back to 1939-41, when they took out a three-peat under the former club name ICI.
This was a much easier grand final for the Lions to win than last year’s one-point cliffhanger over Spotswood, who have now lost the past three season deciders, making it four premierships from eight consecutive grand final appearances.
The Lions were well on their way to victory at the 19-minute mark of the third quarter when Shylo Smith booted the goal of the game from tight up on the boundary at the swimming pool end with barely a flicker of daylight between the goal posts.
It put the Lions 47 points up and broke the spirit of the Woodsmen, who were in the midst of a mini-fightback early in the third term.
The Lions might have had the game under lock and key before half time had they not missed a bevy of scoring opportunities, including the five behinds in a row to open their account in the first term.
“If we had’ve kicked straight, I don’t know what the record was for a grand final win, but we probably would’ve broken the record,” Summers said.
“We’re just rapt to have a win – didn’t care if it’s by a point, but I’d rather it like that so it’s a bit more comfortable.”
Spotswood booted the first goal of the game, fittingly through onballer David Iaccarino.
Iaccarino would have five goals by game’s end to be the clear stand-out player on his side.
While the Woodsmen had early success at the stoppages through ruckman Murray Boyd and his onballers Iaccarino, Shaun Ross and Tom Langlands, they were getting beaten in all other areas of the ground.
The Woodsmen’s defensive unit were jittery from the first bounce, turning the ball over with dinky short passes and seeing the ball returned with interest.
Luckily for the neutrals, Deer Park did not find their range in the first quarter and only led by 10 points, as it could have been a whole lot worse for the Woodsmen, but it did serve as a warning.
The Lions ran riot with a nine goals to two second quarter.
The machine was firing on all cylinders from the second term onwards with winners to be found in blue and gold guernseys all over the park.
As it so often does, it started in the middle with ruckman Chris Stewart, one of the great players in his position in the modern era of the western suburbs competition.
Stewart fed the ball on a platter to his runners Smith, Jack Purton-Smith and Rhett King.
Smith finished with five goals from the centre – an incredible performance that on another day might have won him the player-of-the-game medal.
King was the spark in the first half with his blistering speed and raking left foot kick a feature.
Purton-Smith accumulated from the moment he set foot on the ground.
Ben Foley and Jackson Barling were steady in the key defensive posts, while Shaun Harrison was superb with his intercept marking and rebound out of the back half.
Daniel Cooper and James Condos were a constant headache for the Woodsmen defenders.
But the Herb Pascarl Medal honours for best-on-ground went to the razzle dazzle Kwame McHarg.
McHarg finished with seven goals and had barely a scratch on him because his dancing feet made it nigh on impossible for a Woodsmen opponent to lay a finger on him.
Two McHarg moments in the second quarter – the first when he showed off his lightning pace with three running bounces on the outer wing to set up a Smith goal and a goal after working in tight confines to split three Woodsmen defenders that made them look silly – busted the game wide open and gave credence to the umpires decision to award the most valuable player to him.
Summers, so often the one tagged in previous years, is a luxury for Deer Park player-coach Marc Bullen to have as effectively a 10th string player in the midfield.
While the opposition are putting work into the Lions former AFL crew of Bullen, Ryan Houlihan, Ryan Hargrave, Bret Thornton and Brent Guerra, along with the host of top notch midfielders on their books, Summers has lapped up the chance to enjoy a bit more freedom and it shows the embarrassment of riches on the books at the club.
“When you see the team that comes out onto the field, I get off the queue because I’m probably the 10th in line with blokes like Shylo Smith, Kwame McHarg, who won the medal, Heath Ayres and these blokes, it makes my job a bit easier,” Summers said.
It was an extra special day for Summers, who missed last year’s grand final through suspension.
The 33 year old was the captain of the Lions side that went undefeated in 2009 to win the division 2 flag.
A former junior at the club, Summers returned to the club to achieve what he described as “the ultimate” of winning a division 1 premiership.
“I knew [club president] Mark McGoldrick pretty well, he coached me when I was 16 years old and he asked me to come back to the club when it was in a bad way in division 2,” Summers said.
“He told me about the history and where we wanted to take the club and here I am today, the club is back where it should be and I’m stoked.
“I’m just rapt to get an A-grade premiership, that’s what I came to the club for and it finally paid off.
“The turnaround is unbelievable.”
WRFL GRAND FINAL
Deer Park 3.7 11.15 16.21 22.26-158
Spotswood 2.3 4.3 9.7 12.9-81
Deer Park
Goalkickers: K. McHarg 7, S. Smith 5, J. Condos 2, C. Stewart , J. Purton-Smith , M. Bullen , R. King , J. Wong , B. Guerra , H. Ayres , B. Thornton
Best Players: C. Stewart , K. McHarg , S. Smith , H. Ayres , S. Harrison , J. Barling
Spotswood
Goalkickers: D. Iaccarino 5, J. Orchard 2, J. Cloke 2, C. Elliott , M. Lewis , J. Dorward
Best Players: D. Iaccarino , T. Langlands , D. Callard , M. Boyd , M. Lewis , W. Langlands
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