By Jonty Ralphsmith
It was the 10-minute Cranbourne anomaly.
Inexplicable and uncharacteristic for the Eagles; another scintillating chapter in the emerging rivalry between two Southern Football Netball League powerhouses.
Speaking to Star News in the days following Cranbourne’s agonising grand final defeat to Cheltenham, having led all day until the stoppage time in the last quarter, coach Steve O’Brien conceded what spectators saw.
A lack of composure kept the silverware away from the Eagles in 2023.
“We’d love that 10 minutes back as a group,” O’Brien explained.
“We had so much composure all day as a group, and then in the last 10 minutes we just sort of lost total composure in key occasions and it really hurt us.”
O’Brien indicated he was confident with the way the Eagles had trained such scenarios in the lead up, while highlighting there’s no replica for a true opposition.
“Watching it back, Myke Cook has a ping from outside 50 and it bounces near the point post and takes a left turn – when you get on a roll, things happen,” the coach said.
“Some of those things are uncontrollable, but there were so many little things in the last 15 minutes we will look back on and go ‘what happened there?’
“That was the difference in the end.”
As the rawness of the result slowly started to thaw, there was a capacity to compartmentalise the dying stages of the grand final – and subsequent result and reflect on the year.
Off-season departures headlined a series of events which put question marks over where Cranbourne sat ahead of 2023.
But once the season started, the usual suspects, complemented by a younger band, had them in the upper rungs of the competition from the get-go.
Cranbourne didn’t suffer any blowout losses throughout the season.
Despite succumbing in some 50-50 games, a statement which O’Brien made at three-quarter-time of the grand final rang true in most of his team’s outings: ‘destiny is in our hands’.
Often when Cranbourne lost, it was due to a lapse – the clash with Cheltenham at Jack Barker Oval a case in point.
Against Port Melbourne at JL Murphy Reserve, it was ill-discipline.
But when the whips were cracking, the old boys tended to come out and perform.
“You go through different emotions – that’s been the thing over the last little while,” O’Brien said.
“If you look at the entire journey that was our season, it was an incredible journey with everything we’ve been through over the last 12 months.
“You can be nothing but proud after what took place 12 months ago, when there was a feeling of doom around the place, and then we came out on Good Friday and were able to beat the eventual premiers and everyone thought ‘oh things aren’t as bad as what we thought it was going to be’.
“That’s a great example of what this group’s about and all year they were fantastic.
“We wish we could have 10 minutes of footy again but that’s not how it works.
“To everybody’s credit, we just got to work and had a lot of people doing a heck of a lot of hard work and it was almost the perfect ending, but not to be.
“We didn’t get the chance to reward ourselves, nor the people who really picked up a lot of slack this year.”
O’Brien also praised the pressure his side brought in the grand final, their conversion in the forward half, noting that more than 60 per cent of inside 50s resulted in scores, and the hardiness of the defence.
Cranbourne’s list is well-positioned to again be a heavyweight next season, with experience to remain and the emerging midfield having a season of synergy under their belts.
The club has also spruiked all season its expectation that there will be an under-19s side next year, which will enhance the Eagles’ ability to continue to blood fresh faces.
