Tara Murray
Keilor has done it again to claim back-to-back premierships in the Essendon District Football League premier division.
The best side all season, the heat was turned on the Blues when they were convincingly beaten by Pascoe Vale in the semi finals.
Two weeks later there would be no repeat of that result in the rematch in the grand final.
Things were tight early with the Panthers up for the fight and leading by one point at the first break.
From there the Blues took control of the match and were able to blow out the margin on the way to a 17.12 (114)-8.13 (61) win.
For Blues coach Mick McGuane it was a pretty special moment.
“They’re all different,” he said. “You go into a game with different preps, different personnel.
“Beaten by 34 points 14 days ago. A good win last week and a short preparation this week.
“We made six changes from two weeks ago, what does it look like? We had full belief in what we had, but we didn’t have them two weeks ago and they were going to make a point of difference and that was proven.”
Having brought in five players for the preliminary final, the Blues brought back defender Riley Ham for his first game since hurting his shoulder against Pascoe Vale in round 13.
McGuane said they had felt a bit clunky and disjointed leading into the grand final with play availability having a part in that.
They used 39 players in the senior side for the season.
“We believe our best is probably as good as anyone in the comp and you’re on top of the ladder for a reason,” he said.
“You sort of want to be hitting the ground running at the right time of the year. We felt we had a strong base behind us, we wanted to time our run and energy.
“I thought our energy on the back of last week’s second half was the catalyst behind starting well.”
McGuane said on Saturday it took them about 15 minutes to get into the game after being a bit sloppy early which resulted in three Panthers goals.
Three Nathan Colenso goals kept the Blues in it and they got on top after that.
“I thought after that our spread on the ground, our ball use, inside 50 entries against the breeze was much better than what it was with it,” McGuane said.
“We knew we had to probably concede terrority at times, so our defence was going to be asked a lot to do and having Ham back in that team to sure up [Reuben] William and [James] Bailey and [Brad] Xavier play higher knowing full well [Jay] White was going to go to [Ahmed] Saad.
“The work of Ham, Xavier and White on Saad to not give them shots on goal… We did a lot right.”
At the other end of the ground, Colenso and Jovan Petric kicked nine goals between them. The pair were among the inclusions for the preliminary final.
McGuane said having them back, alongside Cody Brand, made a huge difference in providing them with targets.
Colenso was awarded the Reg Rose Medal as the best player on ground for his five goals.
Nick O’Kearney was outstanding with three goals, while his midfield partner in Corey Ellis was also among the best.
For McGuane, it was his fifth premiership as coach of the Blues.
Kane Barbuto and Mason Thomas played in premiership number four, while several players are now three times premiership players.
“They understand how you play,” McGuane said. “They understand what is needed and required at the back half of the year.
“This time of year is about trust and understanding why to get it done, sometimes you have to be resilient.”
At the other end of the scale is 17-year-old Thomas McGuane.
He dreamed of playing in a senior premiership as a teenager when he saw Curtis Taylor do it in 2016, it became a reality on Saturday.
Mick was full of emotions having coached his son to a senior premiership, having already done it at junior level.
He said Thomas played a real selfless role in trying to limit the impact of Matthew Stillman.
“It’s a pretty proud moment,” he said. “You see all the hard work that he puts in.
“Sometimes you have to differentiate between dad and coach which is hard to do. He knows where he stands when it comes to footy.
“I coach team on equability, yes he’s my son but I also coach him as part of the senior group and there’s strong messaging attached to that.
“To see a kid evolve and develop and now he gets the opportunity to taste premiership success and then in seven days time, he gets a chance to play on the MCG before a grand final.
“This is an example of what you do when you work hard in silence. I couldn’t be prouder of him as a coach today and as a father.”
The premiership is the first time that the Blues have gone back-to-back under McGuane.
He said the message is always simple.
We adopted the motto back to work right from the first training session,” he said. “Work got us to a grand final, now is about performance and can we stand up. Our boys delivered that in spades.”
