Bendigo Advertiser |
THE next chapter in one of central Victorian sport’s most remarkable turnarounds will be written on Saturday when Huntly contests the Heathcote District Football League grand final.
No-one could have foreseen at the end of 2011 when the Hawks had just claimed their 10th-straight wooden spoon that in the space of only two years they would be playing off for the flag.
But that will be the case on Saturday when the Hawks take on the two-time defending champions Lockington-Bamawm United at Elmore.
While the fairytale rise of Huntly has captured the HDFL headlines the past two years, coach Stacy Fiske has drilled into his players that making a grand final simply isn’t good enough.
The Hawks are there to win it – something Huntly hasn’t achieved since 1940.
“It’s a great credit to the committee and the community that we’ve got ourselves into this position,” Fiske said.
“We’ve got a fantastic group of players and committee and hopefully, we can do them justice on Saturday.
“We’ve spoken this week that we’ve worked really hard to get ourselves into this position, but we can’t be just satisfied in making the grand final.
“We’re the first playing group at Huntly to have made a HDFL grand final, and we want to make sure we take the opportunity.”
Following their 10 wooden spoons in a row between 2002 and 2011 – during which they won just nine of 160 games and copped 53 100 point-plus hidings – Fiske last year led a new-look Huntly into the finals for the first time since 2001.
However, the Hawks didn’t deliver on the big stage and were knocked out in the elimination final by North Bendigo by 42 points.
But they built on last year’s foundation and for the second half of this season have shaped as the only real threat to the Cats’ bid for a premiership hat-trick.
The Hawks go into the grand final having won 15 of their 19 games this season, including a 66-point belting of North Bendigo in last week’s preliminary final.
“After bowing out in the first week of the finals last year, we probably weren’t mature enough as a group to know what we had in front of us,” Fiske said.
“I don’t think we fully understood what we could achieve if we really knuckled down and focused on what we’re here for, and that’s to be successful.
“This year the blokes took more ownership of that and have more of an understanding of why they’re turning up to training and what we’re striving to achieve.”
Fiske has constantly sung the praises of the Hawks’ defence this season, with the backline having included Michael Fitzgerald, Josh Harris, Ryley Dickens, Angus McKinley, Garret Davies and Matt Pendlebury.
“We really launch our attacks off the back of our defence. Our defensive structures have improved this year and it’s been understood that if we can do that really well, the rest will look after itself,” Fiske said.
In attack, the Hawks haven’t had a shortage of options, with Chris Gleeson (53), Luke Ross (39), Braidy Dickens (39), Lachie O’Toole (29), Ryan Semmel (28) and Daniel Lloyd (25) all kicking at least 25 goals.
Through the midfield, the Hawks have two of the best onballers in the HDFL in Fiske and newly-crowned Cheatley medallist Semmel, along with strong support from Adrian McErvale, Tom Curry, Cory Lobb and Matt Klein-Breteler.
The Hawks will go into Saturday as underdogs, but they are the only team to have beaten LBU this year, winning by 11 points in round three.
“I’ve got faith that if we play our roles, stick to our structures and play our style of footy, we’ll be in with a big chance,” Fiske said.
