By Tyler Lewis
Good teams may win ugly, but great teams win when their backs are against the wall in grand finals.
And that’s exactly what this Narre Warren side is… a great team.
Despite unmistakably being the best side all year, the Magpies had no right to overturn a grand final in the style in which they did – but that’s what great teams simply do.
Not only were they trailing at every change, Shane Dwyer’s men were gone – facing a deficit of 21 points at the 23-minute mark of the third term, with just 30 points of its own to that point in time.
Emerging superstar Will Howe kicked truly to bring the Pies back within 15, before Riley Siwes immediately followed suit.
And with almost 32 minutes gone in the term, the Pies cry for a leader awoke the beast that is league medallist Jake Richardson.
He emerged from a dense pack with Sherrin in hand and proceeded to kick an arrow of a drop punt over the umpires cap to shift his side back within a kick.
At the final huddle of the year, Dwyer urged his men: “if you leave anything out here, you haven’t done enough.”
While he started in the middle of the ground in an obvious magnet move, Jarrod Smith found space and waltzed inside the arc to then put the Pies in front for the first time since the opening 10 minutes of the game.
Woori Yallock instantaneously answered, before the Pies once again found solace in the hands and right boot of Richardson.
After a selection of minor scores that saw the Pies edge ahead by a solitary behind, Richardson converted a long-range set shot that put his side up by more than a kick.
It would eventually be the final goal of the game, as Narre Warren booted seven consecutive behinds to edge over the three-goal buffer, ultimately securing a famous 9.18 (72) to 8.10 (58) triumph.
While there was a surplus of dramatic twists in the game, none could quite top the beginning of the match, when the two sides were asked to leave the field for lightning and thunder protocols.
Almost like something seen in a box-office hit, the players, umpires and officials were ushered from the ground at the conclusion of the national anthem.
Premiership coach Shane Dwyer can laugh about the situation now, but he was far from impressed at the time.
“We didn’t know what was going on, I have never had that before in my playing or coaching career,” he said.
“We went in there and the twos had won, so we didn’t know what to do, in the end when they said it was going to be 50 minutes, I just told the twos to come in an enjoy themselves.
“I walked out and saw the ground and thought ‘oh sh*t’, because obviously the dryer the better for us.
“There’s not much you can do, I just hope that never happens again.
“We thought we were going to take ground with the footy, but after that rain, it changed everything – they did it better than us for two and a half quarters.
“We like it dry, switching the play and that; we hardly did that all day, because we couldn’t.”
Regardless of the fact his side was down by four goals deep into the third, with just four on the board for the game, Dwyer always felt confident his side would have the run in the legs.
“We were more thinking about what we could do in the last quarter,” he said of his thoughts when Howe was lining up at the 23-minute mark of the third.
“We felt they were going to run out of legs at some stage; they did last week against Wandin and again in the first one (first final) where Wandin were all over them.
“So we sort of played on that saying ‘they will stop, they will stop’… to their credit the ball rarely got past half way in the last quarter and we got it back on our terms.”
Goal kicking was a constant rock in Dwyer’s shoe last season and just when the Pies looked to have turned that corner this season, his side booted 2.11 in the final term.
Much like the delay to the match, it’s looked back on in laughter.
“Is that what we kicked,” he questioned.
“I tell you what though, that last point was the best point of all time because as soon as it got to 13 points (the difference), they needed to kick three and we were 24 minutes in, we felt that we were okay.
“A lot of those were 40-45 out with a heavy footy and heavy legs, but the guys delivered.
“(Jake) Richardson delivered in the last, (Will) Howe kicked a couple, the guys that have stood up for us all year stood up in the last quarter.”
Elation at the sound of the final siren bathed Narre Warren players, supporters and it certainly didn’t miss the coach’s box.
“It’s definitely more emotional than playing,” Dwyer said.
“When I played I never cried when I won a couple of flags, but I had the tears going in the box.
“Two of my assistant coaches are two of my closest mates; Peter Lindsay’s in there, he was my first ever coach and Brad Scalzo, who is our playing assistant, was in there because he did his knee at the start of the year.
“I played in a premiership with him (Scalzo), they mean a lot to me and it means a lot coming off Covid.
“We’ve played a year and a half of footy and I have been there three years – it’s pretty pleasing.”
GOAL BY GOAL TIMELINE
TIME PLAYER (CLUB) MARGIN
NARRE WARREN v WOORI YALLOCK
FIRST QUARTER
03.28 J Smith (Narre Warren) Magpies by 6
06.44 J Ryan (Woori Yallock) Scores level
20.45 J Ryan (Woori Yallock) Tigers by 8
24.04 K Busoli (Woori Yallock) Tigers by 15
End of quarter: Narre Warren 1.2 (8) v Woori Yallock 3.5 (23)
SECOND QUARTER
01.31 W Howe (Narre Warren) Tigers by 8
02.30 L Odea Woori Yallock) Tigers by 14
20.50 T Toner (Narre Warren) Tigers by 7
End of quarter: Narre Warren 3.6 (24) v Woori Yallock 4.6 (30)
THIRD QUARTER
06.00 J Ryan (Woori Yallock) Tigers by 13
07.24 K Busoli (Woori Yallock) Tigers by 19
16.23 T Toner (Narre Warren) Tigers by 14
20.53 J Lindgren (Woori Yallock) Tigers by 21
23.15 W Howe (Narre Warren) Tigers by 15
24.10 R Siwes (Narre Warren) Tigers by 9
31.57 J Richardson (Narre Warren) Tigers by 3
End of quarter: Narre Warren 7.7 (49) v Woori Yallock 7.9 (51)
FOURTH QUARTER
04.51 J Smith (Narre Warren) Magpies by 3
07.31 J Hay (Woori Yallock) Tigers by 3
14.38 J Richardson (Narre Warren) Magpies by 7
End of quarter: Narre Warren 9.18 (72) v Woori Yallock 8.10 (58)
