Weekly Times |SHAYNE Breuer was told on Saturday before Horsham Saints’ eighth grand final appearance in the Wimmera league that eight was a lucky number in Japan.
It certainly turned out to be the Saints’ lucky number.
After a barnstorming start — which yielded the first eight unanswered goals of the match — Horsham Saints finally claimed its first senior premiership in the Wimmera league after seven unsuccessful attempts, including two in the past two seasons. Horsham — which had won 11 of the past 12 premierships — stood in its way, but after the Saints led 10.2 (62) the 1.2 (8) at half-time, the Demons were going to need a miracle to add to their silverware collection.
The final score was 16.6 (102) to 9.8 (62).
Breuer, who was coaching the Saints for the second season, said relief was one of the major emotions he felt after the match, both for the club and himself.
“When we made it last year, they were really happy and up and about, but this year we made the grand final and you could see they weren’t happy with that, and they knew they had more to do,” Breuer said.
Sam Jasper, who joined the Saints this season from Kalkee, bagged five goals for the grand final and was recognised with the AFL Victoria Country medal for best-on-ground and best under-21 player.
There were also plenty of wellwishers for Phil Butsch, who, despite battling a return of cancer this year, fulfilled his wish of winning a premiership with the Saints.
“He’s had that many kicks and knocks down that for him to just have one little win, I think is fantastic,” Breuer said. “It’s only a little win in the scheme of things, but to see the smile on his face gave me a smile too.”
Lismore Derrinallum and Darley also won their first premierships in the Mininera and District and Ballarat leagues, respectively at the weekend.
Sea Lake-Nandaly also won the last Mallee league premiership, with the competition to now disband.