By RUSSELL BENNETT
DOVETON Eagles matriarch Jenny Davis made a beeline straight for her son Paul in frantic scenes at Cheltenham’s Jack Barker Oval on Saturday.
If anyone had somehow missed the preceding two hours of football in the Southern Football League Division 3 grand final, the sight of their embrace in the centre square told the whole story.
The game was one of redemption for the Eagles, and the result – a 14.11 (95) to 7.14 (56) win over Carrum Patterson Lakes – vindication.
Next stop – Division 2.
Saturday signified the club’s return from the brink – from just a couple of years ago when its reputation was shot to pieces, banished from the league for a series of ugly on and off-field incidents.
“It’s been a really long journey back,” said Jenny, the Eagles president.
“There’s been a lot of changes along the way and I don’t like that because I’m a creature of habit.
“But having said that, there were things that had to be changed down at the Eagles nest otherwise we simply couldn’t have continued as a club.
“The boys embraced it, the leadership has been ruling them and they’ve been doing really well.”
The club’s culture was completely overhauled, yet Jenny and Paul – the Eagles coach – have had to battle ever since.
“I had to speak to all the presidents of every single other club in the league and explain to them what had happened and the things we put in place to bring us back and give ourselves a real chance,” Jenny said.
“Everywhere you go – Doveton people are scum. Dogs. Thugs.
“I hate that perception. They don’t know us. When I moved to Doveton 26 years ago, I was a mess. Paul was nine and my daughter was 14 and I hated the idea of moving there.
“But now I wouldn’t leave the place. I love it. It’s been magical. It’s all one big community and the football club is the same.”
Most Eagles life members have been waiting since 1995 to once again taste premiership glory.
The club’s inaugural flag came in its first season in the SFL.
Its second, fittingly, has come in just its second year back in the competition. In a perfect curtain-raiser, the Eagles reserves triumphed, too.
Turnovers marred the early going in Saturday’s big game.
Instead of starting with the confidence of a previously undefeated team in 2013, the Eagles looked like they had the weight of the world on their shoulders.
There was just so much on the line – and they knew it.
But true to the side’s character, Doveton settled first.
Jangling nerves were put on the backburner as sheer determination came to the fore.
The inspirational lead-by-example coach, the Wilson boys, Peter Dye and hardened backline general Mark Mott wouldn’t have it any other way as their side ultimately stormed to glory by 39 points.
The win put an emphatic exclamation mark on their undefeated season – 20 straight wins.
Any perceived notions from around the league that the Eagles didn’t belong were simply blown out of the water.
The seniors result capped off a floorless day for the resilient club.
The Eagles reserves were just as convincing in the curtain raiser, also storming to victory over Carrum Patterson Lakes, 11.15 (81) to 7.5 (47).
