GFL big guns split over ’asterisk’ premiership talk
A FLAG won through a oneoff grand final would always carry an asterisk, according to St Mary’s president John McMahon.
But Colac counterpart Matt Gibson has declared a 2021 GFL premiership won under those circumstances would actually be one of the hardest fought triumphs yet.
The two premier sides in the league this season, the Saints and Tigers, will play a grand final on October 3 if play can be resumed on September 25 in AFL Barwon’s current finals road map.
While McMahon labelled the potential result as an “asterisk” flag, Gibson said it would be the “survival of the fittest”.
The clubs returned to training on Friday night and are desperate for games to return.
As it stands now, if the GFL can return to the field this weekend it will play a six-team finals series and McMahon said that was the only way to have a truly fair result this year.
“The reason I would say I would like a top six is because if you look at a side like Joeys (who finished sixth on the ladder), they have had a lot tougher draw than us,” he said.
“We have only played Colac once and they have played them twice, so if (Joeys) missed out because of the draw I would be disappointed.
“You could probably look at it that Colac and us were the two best sides but finals doesn’t always work out like that.
“I would accept it (a premiership) but you would always put an asterisk next to the grand final I would have thought.”
Colac’s senior football and A-grade netball sides finished second and would play in grand finals if they went ahead. Gibson said a one-off decider would be a good result to finish a tumultuous year if it was the only path forward.
“I think if you talked to the footy public and that was the worst-case (scenario) you could get to, most would say, ‘that is not a bad outcome’,” he said. “I would probably look at this year as being one of the hardest to win. You are trying to keep people motivated and fit and I think the capacity for people to keep willing themselves to train not knowing it (finals) was going to be there, it would be one of the tougher ones to win.
“This has been the survival of the fittest physically, emotionally and mentally. For all of this to happen and someone win it, I would dip my lid to that club.”