Joeys win ‘the best’

RILEY Ferguson thought he’d blown it.

Spraying his set-shot wide at the 25-minute mark of the first term, Ferguson (above) missed an opportunity to give St Joseph’s a 17-point lead.

Instead, Jarryd Garner and Doug Bond booted successive goals in time-on to rip back momentum and give St Mary’s a one-point advantage at the main break. It was a gamebreaker, and Ferguson knew it.

“I didn’t give it a chance,” lamented Ferguson of his kick to the city end. “It was a pretty ordinary kick, actually.”

Having kicked two goals early to give Joeys a spark, Ferguson took it upon himself to take the game by the scruff of the neck.

“I knew I had to put it through,” Ferguson said.

“I shanked it, really. The breeze was going towards the netball courts and I just didn’t give it a chance. And I thought ‘I knew I had to kick that’. We were 13 points down, but it didn’t matter in the end.”

Ferguson was one of his side’s best in a memorable grand final, virtually erasing the pain of a costly miss.

“This is unbelievable,” Ferguson said. “We’ve come from a long way back and we were struggling in Round 17 and 18, but the resilience among the group was amazing.”

One of eight players to claim a third flag with Joeys, Ferguson described Saturday’s win as the top of the pile.

“From where we’ve come from, this is the best,” he said.

“Everyone had written us off towards the end of the year, and to get dominated in the first final and have a cutthroat final against South Barwon and win that and beat Leopold, who were the best team in it, it makes it the best.”