Dream comes true

Kevin Russell will go down in Silverbacks, and Gridiron Victoria, folklore. Pictures: COURTESY OF JULIE BELSHAM

By Russell Bennett

“WIN it, and become a brotherhood so in 40 years when someone is walking down the street in Pakenham, or Washington and you hear a brother’s voice, you have a connection straight away again.”
Pakenham Silverbacks coach Mel Martin has been involved in the sport of gridiron at a grassroots level for three decades, but what his team accomplished on Sunday at Lakeside Stadium in Albert Park was like nothing he’d ever experienced before – a perfect, undefeated season.
All of the pressure was on the Pakenham side heading into its 2016 campaign. It was on a hiding to nothing.
On the one hand, last season’s fairytale championship win was viewed by many around the state as a fluke. To make it truly count in the eyes of those outsiders, Pakenham had to back it up this year.
And with every win, the pressure intensified.
The Silverbacks stormed through the regular season with a 12-0 record and at that stage the jungle drums were beating so loud they were practically deafening. So many people were just waiting for the kings of the jungle to fall.
There was an incredible amount of nervous energy leading into Sunday’s game and it threatened to boil over when the Division 2 decider started more than an hour behind time – inexplicably due to some missing equipment on the biggest day of the season.
The Silverbacks warmed up twice in that time, and cooled down again. And when kick-off finally arrived, the Pakenham side started flat.
It was star quarterback Kevin Russell’s last game in Silverbacks colours and he was faced with some immense defensive pressure early.
The Northern Raiders had nothing to lose and they came out breathing fire from the outset.
But as the quarter wore on, Russell’s quality shone – finding Jason Howlett in the endzone before Aaron Verbakel recovered a miscued snap to run in the extra two points.
The Silverbacks took an 8-0 lead into the second and stretched that to 28-0 just before the half.
Then, a 10-second lapse proved costly as the Raiders crossed for a touchdown of their own to cut the margin back to 28-6.
Russell had played a sensational half, while Adam Kolinski was even more influential on the defensive end.
But the Pakenham quarterback was rocked with a hit to the head as the second quarter wound down. He had his cage rattled and, even if only for a second, the Silverbacks were no longer on rock-solid ground.
“Twenty four minutes of excellence, that’s all we need – you know you’ve got it,” Martin said to the group at half-time.
“I see it in everyone. It’s time to show them.”
And show them, they did. Pakenham romped to a 43-8 win despite a penalty-ridden second half. The win was just as emphatic as they’d dreamed, and that dream had become a reality.
“I’ve never had a season like this where we’ve gone undefeated,” Martin said.
“I’ve said to a lot of people I don’t want another one, because the longer it went the more stress there was to continue winning. How would we deal with the let-down when or if we did lose?
“All I said to these guys in pre-season, even before that, is that they got lucky last season and everyone knew it, but they had enough talent to dominate the league. That’s what they came out and did.”
Kolinski was named MVP of the championship game after his outstanding performance on the defensive end, but this truly was a whole team performance.
In the delay prior to the start of the game, Martin went around the Silverbacks’ changeroom and asked each player what the team meant to them.
The sheer emotion stemming from some of the biggest men in the room showed just what it all meant.
“They bought into everything – they put up with my grumpiness, they backed away when I was at my worst, but they bought in and they just did what they were told to do when they were told to do it,” Martin, a Gridiron Victoria icon in his own right, said.
“I made a promise to them at the start of the season – that they’d be better footballers at the end of the season than they were at the start. I’ve kept that promise.”
Silverbacks offensive lineman and club co-founder Richie Howlett put into words after the game just what the back-to-back championship victories mean to those who’ve been involved from the start.
“We came out with something to prove – that last year wasn’t a fluke,” he said.
“We didn’t just want to win – we wanted to smash them.”
And that, they did.
Russell was instrumental as he had been all season – proving himself to be the best quarterback in Gridiron Victoria competition, and set for a professional career either in North America or Europe.
“We thought we’d get an import quarterback because he could help impart some of his knowledge to our players,” Howlett said.
“We thought a quarterback would be a mentor to our players and to everyone on the field, but when Kevin came down here we were just blown away.
“When I made contact with him I’d seen footage of his college games and things like that, so I knew he was a successful player. I knew he was an athlete and he had so many years of experience playing the game at a high level that nobody else had. We knew he’d be good but it wasn’t until he came out here that we then realised how good he was – we weren’t really ready for that.”
Next stop – Division 1.

 

The 2016 Pakenham Silverbacks…

James Avia
Paul Ballinger (captain)
Felix Brown
Matt Campbell
JJ Collett
JJ Craig
Toby Currie
Mitch Dearden
Cameron Dixon
Fosio Dunlop
Chevy Edwards
Brett Egan
Joel Elridge
Grant Elliott
Mitch Farrant
Nic Green
Roy Gutierrez
Vai Havili
Jye Healey
Jacob Houston
Jason Howlett
Richie Howlett
Dillon Hughes
Adam Kolinski
Sale Laumua
Adam Lindsay
Trevor Marks
JJ McFall
Glenn Milton
Fa’a Mulipola
Akapei Pua
Blake Rich
Kevin Russell
Kamil Sahin
Daniel Salvar
Richmond Stowers
Daniel Scholes
Paul Scholes
Brandon Tonks
Tommy Trimble
Aaron Verbakel
Aaron Weightman
Jayden Wennholz
Leed Wesolowski

Mel Martin (head coach)
Damien Belsham (coach)
Ashlee Trimble (manager)
Julie Belsham (volunteer)
Nikki D’Angelo (volunteer)
Rod Scholes (volunteer)
Lema Laumua (volunteer)

Silverbacks named as Gridiron Victoria award winners in 2016…

Division 2 Overall MVP – Kevin Russell
Division 2 Offensive MVP – Kevin Russell

All-Victorian Division 2 team
Quarterback: 
Kevin Russell
Wide Receiver: Jason Howlett
Wide Receiver: Nic Green
Left Tackle: Richie Howlett
Defensive Tackle: Richmond Stowers
Defensive End: Daniel Salvar
Linebacker: Adam Kolinski
Strong Safety: Chevy Edwards