THIRD TIME LUCKY AS SAINTS WIN
St Mary’s coach Vallejo proud of effort put in by troops after pain of losing two grand finals in a row erased
ST MARY’S have once again tasted premiership success with a thrilling grand final victory over a fighting Waratah.
Both sides brought the intensity from the off with hard, contested footy. But after a difficult opening quarter where Waratah ground out a four-goal lead the Saints powered on to secure a 15.10 (100) to 10.5 (65) win and the 2021-22 premiership.
Saints had the early run of the game getting the ball into the hands of key on-ballers Jack Kluske and Josh Smithson, but could not get beyond the Tahs defence.
The key battle in the Saints forward 50 was between the league’s leading goal kicker Jackson Calder and key Tahs’ defender Daniel O’Dwyer, who had won this contest in the semi-final.
An early chance for Calder went begging after he took a strong mark from the midst of Waratah defenders, but only came away with a point.
That almost score ignited Tahs, particularly the Collis brother, Dylan and Will, who were everywhere in the opening quarter setting up a platform for their big forwards.
Kurtley Silver showed his x-factor, Brodie Carroll got his fair share of the ball and Corey Rich put himself in position to nab goals.
But, Saints were determined not to go in to quarter-time without a major and a swift break from speedster Nick Yarran gifted Calder the opener.
The score activated the Green Machine and they burst into life in the second quarter with a 55m kick from Kluske set the tone.
Dylan Landt and skipper Nate
Paredes came into the game as well and all of a sudden Saints were finding themselves first to the ball at every contest.
Joseph Salmon showed off his speed while Justin Robinson also had plenty of moments in the limelight and after kicking four goals on the bounce to see off the half Saints were away.
They never let up the pressure from there getting in plenty of strong tackles and winning free kicks to put the pressure on Tahs, an almost reverse of the same encounter two weeks before.
Meanwhile, Waratah lagged for ball with the match fitness of the Saints showing in the later stages of the game.
Calder had plenty of it throughout the third quarter and managed his bag of goals while Kieran Parnell absolutely fired in the backline.
Waratah had a brief resurgence in the final quarter kicking junk time goals to form a more favourable margin but for them is not to be the drought breaker.
Paredes called the win “so special.” “It’s my second now but I reckon that is the most special one. We’ve had a tough couple of years and to come through is just awesome,” he said.
“I love these boys, it’s been a massive couple of years for us. The club has gone through a massive couple of years and to come away with that is reward for so many people’s efforts.
“It came down to our speed and intensity. We just tried to bring effort and intensity that whole game. That’s what the coach (Anthony Vallejo) said from the start and we brought that all game.
“Particularly in the second half where we ran them over for the win so I’m pretty proud.
“We knew they were going to come, we just have to withstand them. We’ve been working on our fitness all year and we knew that would come out on top.”
Saints’ coach Anthony Vallejo was more than proud of the effort put in by his troops after two losing grand finals in a row.
“It’s more relief than anything, I’m happy for the boys and this win is about them,” Vallejo said.
“I was yelling to my assistant coach on the bench right to the end, I didn’t know when the siren was going to go or what was happening after last year’s effort.
“The last couple of weeks have been about coming out and having some fun. We’ve been at this dance for the past couple of years so it was about loosening the roof and letting the boys have some fun.”