Hallam Football Club capped off its invincible season by hanging a first-ever seniors flag on the wall of the Hawks’ clubrooms.
Hallam made history by eclipsing the Southern Division 4 premiership, edging out a brave Dandenong West side 11.6(72) to 8.9(57) at Hampton Park.
The Hawks didn’t lose a game all season, entering their names into footy immortality in what is a proud moment for the club.
It wasn’t all smooth sailing at Robert Booth Reserve however, with the big dance being tied at the conclusion of the first term.
Hallam pushed out to a two-goal advantage at the main break before the Westerners slowly clawed back into it, getting within four points in the final period.
But as the Hawks have all season, they closed it out in a professional way with clutch goalkicking sealing the win.
“Even though we were pretty dominant throughout the year, I think the feeling that you’ve earned it on grand final day is probably a bit more rewarding,” Hallam senior coach Tom Dalton said.
“Grand finals are always different, you’ve got to earn it and we bloody earned it, that’s for sure.
“It was a good game, Dandenong kept up with us all day, we had to earn it.
“We were really nervous and it showed in the first quarter.
“It took us a couple of quarters to settle down and Dandenong came at us, they played better than I’ve ever seen them play.
“To Dandenong’s due credit, to come from where they’ve been and just miss in a grand final, good on them, they’ve done well.”
Hallam Football Club was founded in 2012, winning a senior premiership in just the club’s 14th season.
The Hawks have new clubrooms at Hallam Reserve, making it an ideal spot for a brand new flag to hang and to treasure.
“That’s the first one for the club so they can build themselves a trophy cabinet,” Dalton remarked.
“We’ve got brand new rooms so we’ve got no trophy cabinet at the moment, so it was great to see Saturday night, they’ve got the flags pinned up on the wall already.
“We went out into the middle of the ground and put the cups in the middle and sung the song.
“That’s what the footy club is all about, it’s the bonds you make.
“They’ll be old men and they’ll come back to the club and they’ll have their photo on the wall and they’ll look at the flags and say ‘we played in the first ever flag’.”
“That’s something that can’t be taken away from them.
“It’s pretty special to win the first flag for the club.
“It took a lot of work from a lot of good people, it was a lot of people that chipped in and like everything, we did it together.
“That’s how you win them, not by one person, it takes everybody chipping in.”
Dalton was incredibly proud of his playing group to hoist the cup after heartbreakingly going down in last year’s grand final to Hampton.
The fire in the belly never went away and there was one feeling stronger than any other when the final siren went on Saturday.
“The first emotion was relief that we finally got it done,” Dalton recalled.
“The feeling around the club was they just wanted to get that first grand final out of the way and get it done.
“You have to be mentally tough to win a grand final.
“Then the joy comes after it, but I think a lot of the guys have been around for a while and haven’t won a grand final before.
“Sometimes you’ve got to lose one to win one and that’s exactly what happened.
“We haven’t lost a game since last year’s grand final so you’ve got the weight of going the whole season undefeated going into the grand final but for the boys to get it done, it was really good.
“They’ve worked hard, we did a hard preseason and they don’t miss training, they don’t miss extra sessions so they’ve put in the extra work so they’ve earned it.”
On a brilliant day for the club, the reserves also tasted premiership success, knocking off Lyndale 8.8(56) to 6.6(42).
Hallam has earned promotion and will now compete in Southern Division 3 in 2026 with the win.
Small forward Nathan Jerram was awarded best-on-ground for the seniors, proving to be damaging in the contest and moving the ball forward.
“They put their head over the ball and did the right thing,” Dalton said proudly of his outfit.
“You have to be tough to win grand finals.
“I was pleased for them, there’s a lot of excitement.”
