Tara Murray
Keilor forward Nathan Colenso was ready to go when he got a phone call from coach Mick McGuane a couple of weeks ago.
With his Victorian Football League commitments with Williamstown coming to an end, it opened up the opportunity for Colenso to help the Blues win back-to-back flags.
He kicked three goals in the preliminary final win, before backing it up with five goals in a best on ground performance in the grand final on Saturday.
“I got a call from Mickey two weeks ago and I watched the footage of that day, I didn’t play,” he said.
“I noticed how much they beat us up pretty much. We had a game plan, got through last week and we came today [Saturday] with a real game plan to resurrect that result.
“All 22 contributed and it’s pretty amazing now to be back-to-back premiers.
“It’s pretty surreal.”
Colenso said after Williamstown’s loss in the VFL semi finals, he felt like he could come back and help the Blues.
The Blues were coming off one of their worst performances in a couple of years.
“The mindset the whole year whenever I’m not playing at Willy, I’m fully invested back here at Keilor,” he said. “Credit to the club and the boys, they welcomed me back with open arms every time I came back.
“I thought I could be a point of difference and luckily enough today [Saturday] I was.”
Colenso did a lot of his damage early in the grand final to win the Reg Rose Medal.
He kicked his side’s only three goals in the first quarter. The other two came in the third quarter when the Panthers were starting to get some momentum.
He said it was nice to get on the end of a few and actually kick straight, which he said that he hadn’t been able to do much this year.
Colenso said there were quite a few set shots during the week.
“A lot of work goes in behind the scenes for all the boys,” he said. “We had a real game plan and we went to work on that.
“And we went to work on our deficiencies and we turned it around.”
Colenso said it was nice to play with some freedom and fun knowing that they had the job done late in the game.
It’s the second season that Colenso has combined VFL and local football commitments.
He said he loves playing at the higher level.
“It was obviously tough missing the first nine rounds and I played the first nine here,” he said. “Got in some good form and got back to Willy and we made a really good run at it at Willy and then fell short in the semi finals.
“Had an amazing year, I can’t really complain. Playing in a VFL finals series and coming back playing in a premiership here.”
Colenso wasn’t the only Williamstown player to come back into the Blues side the past two weeks, with Jovan Petric joining him.
Petric kicked three goals in the preliminary final before kicking four in the grand final.
Colenso said the pair are a bit like yin and yang.
