St Albans has secured its first piece of senior silverware for nearly a decade by winning the WRFL division 1 reserves premiership on Saturday.
The Saints proved too good for local rival Sunshine and led at every change on their way to a 19-point win at Chirnside Park in Werribee.
However, it wasn’t all smooth sailing for St Albans which was challenged a number of times by the fired up Kangaroos.
PICTURE GALLERY: St Albans v Sunshine WRFL reserves
After trailing by 27 points at half-time, Sunshine got right back into the contest during the third term.
The Kangaroos controlled the ball for long passages of play and made the most of their chances to cut the margin to just two goals going into the final break.
But, as they have done all year, the young Saints found another gear when the moment called for it. St Albans kicked three last term goals to secure the 11.14 (80) to 8.13 (61) win.
Saints coach Aidan Stott was delighted with the fight shown by his side.
“It has been building and building,” he said.
“We were challenged today and to fight it out and get the job done, we are absolutely rapt.
“We knew we had to dig deep and we weren’t going to ease up until that final siren.
‘‘We just brought so much effort to the contest and I couldn’t be prouder of the players.”
Saturday’s premiership was St Albans’ first at senior level for nine years.
Stott believes the win could kick off a strong era for the club. He said he expected several players to progress to senior football next season. “We see a lot of these guys being able to push up and play senior footy,” he said.
“We basically had a bunch of boys out there against the men at Sunshine. A few of them grew into men today.
“I think it’s just the start of a really strong run for our club.”
The Saints were brilliantly led by Konrad Sosnowski who was joined by Reece Panetas, Theodore Sapountzis and Stephen Hoare.
Stephen Considine booted two goals for Sunshine.
The win goes some way to making up for the Saints’ senior side, which was eliminated in a shock loss to Hoppers Crossing last month.
