By Hayley Wildes
ELLINBANK AND DISTRICT FOOTBALL LEAGUE
PREVIEW – GRAND FINAL
If you’re looking for evidence that having the right people at a footy club can change its fortunes, you need not look any further than the two combatants in this weekend’s EDFL grand final; Nyora and Longwarry.
Both teams were on the outside looking in during last year’s finals series, but make no mistake; they were building and had the personnel in place to lead their respective clubs and towns forward.
For Nyora, a turnaround in culture has been fuelled by playing coach Fia Tootoo and the town is behind its club more than ever.
For Longwarry, new standards have been set by Daniel Fry, also a playing coach, whose love for the club has reinvigorated the Crows.
The two best teams all year will battle it out at Western Park on Saturday afternoon in the hope of ending years of heartache.
Longwarry’s last senior premiership came way back in 1968 as a member of the West Gippsland Football League – a fairytale finish would see them claim the flag for the first time in 50 years.
Nyora’s premiership drought pales in comparison – its last senior flag was in 2007 – but nonetheless it has been a long and success-starved journey to a 2018 grand final berth.
Fry talks about Longwarry’s proud history with the upmost resect and it’s clear that he would love nothing more than to help add another premiership chapter.
“We get an opportunity – it’s nothing more than an opportunity. We’ve got a lot of hard work ahead of us to achieve it, but we’ve certainly given ourselves an opportunity,” he said.
His pre-game speech before Longwarry faced the Warragul Industrials in Saturday’s preliminary final was legendary (the must-watch vision is on Longwarry Football Netball Club’s Facebook page).
With a passion in his voice that was both inspiring and contagious, Fry talked about and displayed the jumpers of the past legends; those who gave everything to the club.
Fry explained that the speech came naturally to him.
“The Longwarry footy club isn’t a place where you’ve got to search too far to find history or be amongst history,” he said.
“There wasn’t a lot behind it, to be honest. It was something that progressively snowballed and then it rolled pretty freely and I didn’t have to put much thought into it – that probably tells you how much history is at the footy club.”
Tootoo knows what a premiership would mean to everyone involved at Nyora.
“Not many have done it and it would be a dream come true,” he said.
“You sit back and look at it being a town effort and a team effort. I’ve had the pleasure of leading the club, but I know it’s much more than that – it’s the volunteers that help out, people that stay true to the club, the players, the supporters and of course the coaching staff.
“It’s nice to be able to lead that, and if it happens, it happens.”
Saturday will mark the fourth encounter between the two sides this season and despite the Saints claiming all three wins so far, they have all been intense battles with an average winning margin of just 12 points.
Their most recent meeting – a semi final clash at Nilma Darnum just two weeks ago – saw Nyora take the chocolates by 15 points in what was an enthralling and relentless battle.
With the Crows leading by three points with a quarter to play, they were unable to stay with the Saints as they powered home.
Fry admits many lessons have been learnt from the defeats.
“Every time we’ve played Nyora, we’ve learnt something new about them,” he said.
“We go in this week as underdogs, which is fantastic – I’m happy to have that title. We went away and learnt a lot from the semi final and hopefully we can put it into practice on Saturday.”
Both teams possess potent forward duos that will play massive roles in the outcome of the game. The Crows are led by Fry (75 goals) and Braydon McHugh (49 goals), while the Saints’ two key recruits in Ben Schultz (57 goals) and Ilan Osman (50 goals) have produced all season.
The Crows’ danger men; the likes of Russ and Troy Lehman, Nick Redley, Corey Lenders, Jake Delphine, Riley Rundell and Cole Cook will need to fire if they are to overpower the Saints.
The Saints – who have lost just two games all season – will most likely be without injured star midfielder Dylan Heylen, but their depth has served them well all season and when challenged they have routinely answered the call with Ryan Spooner, Shaun Beecroft, Rhys Bancroft and Ban Hallas playing vital roles.
