Tenacity the key to victory

WHEN St Mary’s smashed St Joseph’s in the second semi-final only a fortnight ago, St Joseph’s coach Heath Jamieson boldly declared St Mary’s had “shown their hand a bit”.

His comments were vindicated on Saturday after Joeys capped a nearperfect season by claiming the GFL premiership by 47 points in dominant fashion over the Saints.

Joeys played like they knew their best football would be hard to stop. They swarmed, they pressured, they worked the angles and were irresistible, setting the win up in a dominant second quarter that blew the match out to a point of no return.

Led by best-on-ground medallist Daniel Lovick, they didn’t play with arrogance, but rather a deep confidence in what they were doing with swift and brutal execution. The premiers moved the ball at pace, were strong around the footy and in the air and made sure every St Mary’s mistake was not only pounced on with ball in hand but by all players in the area who would get in the faces of their opponents and assert their authority.

“We were confident coming into the game that our best is the best, we’ve said it all year,” Jamieson said.

“To the boys’ credit, they did it on the big stage and that’s where you want to do it. I can’t fault any of our performance today.”

When Ben Moloney goaled at the sixminute mark of the second term, St Joseph’s had kicked three goals in five minutes and the margin sat at six goals, and St Mary’s was blown out of the water.

“You get a steely resolve after a fortnight ago and knew the players were going to bounce back, and the way we played is our product,” Jamieson said.

“We probably had a few things go against us as well,” Jamieson said.

“We still had the double chance and finished second on the ladder, but we were bundled out in straight sets.

“There was a probably a lack of work last year. Who knows? Maybe we celebrate these (premierships) too hard?

“That’s fine. We’re not going to deny the players the next few weeks as premiers of the premier (country) competition in Australia. They’re allowed to celebrate this.”

Heading into the grand final as underdogs with the bookies, despite losing just one match for the season and claiming the minor premiership, Jamieson admitted the critics had fuelled Saturday’s win.

He took aim at rival coaches in his three-quarter-time address, with just three mentors backing Joeys to win.

“You get a little bit carried away at three-quarter-time in a grand final, but our players definitely read it over the past fortnight,” Jamieson said.

“We walked off this ground two weeks ago and (critics said) we were slow, we looked old, we looked like we hadn’t done enough work, our VFL boys didn’t look interested … we took a hit.

“What do you do? Do you stay there lying on the ground or do you dust yourself off and go again?

“We didn’t want to make the grand final, we wanted to win the grand final, and that’s what we focused on after we lost that game (the second semi-final), to come back out and do what we did today.

“I can’t fault our players’ efforts today, but it’s reward for a great year.

“People jumped off us. We were 18-zip, we’d hardly won a game by under six goals, we were the most dominant team the GFL had seen in years by stats. We had one off-day, in the second semi, I grant (critics) that, but the next two games we showed how good we were this year.” “Our effort and intensity around the footy was a lot better than it was a fortnight ago and that’s why the result changed hands.”

St Joseph’s slammed on a further five third-quarter goals, including Jackson Davis’ fourth major, his three openinghalf goals setting the tone for a landmark day for his club.

The back half, marshaled by Lovick and impressive teenager Ben McNamara were resolute.

The ploy of employing makeshift ruckman Ben Capra was also vindicated in Jamieson’s eyes, allowing the premier to hold its preferred structure.

“People were knocking him after the second semi-final and probably they questioned how well he was going, but he was super today,” he said.

The victory is St Joseph’s second flag in three years, and it all left the premiership coach lost for words.

“Everything today was pretty special,” he said.