“Just as good”: Saints march on to back-to-back flags

LEOPOLD Football Club had a moment of hope when it hit the scoreboard first in Saturday’s Geelong Football League (GFL) Grand Final.

But that moment was quickly quelled and ultimately quashed as St Mary’s attained consecutive premierships with a 13.13.91 to 6.10.46 win over the Lions.

The Saints became the sixth GFL club in the league’s history to achieve consecutive flags and St Mary’s captain Jack Blood said winning it a second time felt “just as good” as the first.

“It’s a pretty good feeling to be honest,” Blood said post-game.

“It’s a pretty special achievement to go back-to-back, one that’s hard to get. I’m pretty spent, we left everything out there, but it was a good win to say the least.”

The Saints flew out of the block with a five-goal first term, accruing a 27-point lead in the process to lead 34-7 at the break.

St Mary’s led by five goals at half time after both sides were deadlocked in the second term, each mustering only a single goal.

Glenn Keast and Travis Robertson’s Saints started to pull away in the third and St Mary’s could smell its second-straight flag, boasting a 40-point advantage with 30 minutes remaining.

Three more majors to the way of the Saints all but sealed it as Green and Blue supporters celebrated a 45-point win and a sixth GFL trophy heading to Anthony Costa Oval.

“Having a good spread around the contest was going to be the key against Leopold, and I feel like we did that to an absolute tee in the first half,” Blood said.

“We probably fell away from that in the second, but we still stuck to our structures and played really well as a whole.

“This season, along with most things, was a big grind for everyone.

“Interest at the club for the last three years has been hard to keep and credit to us, we hung in there and finally got the chocolates.”

Joe Maishman and Trent McMullan were the Saints’ leading goalers with three apiece, while Tom Lang contributed two.

Blood, Kade Chalcraft, Patrick Dowling, Jarryd Garner and Matt Keast added their names to the scoresheet.

Leopold’s dream run in the finals sadly ended at the final hurdle, defeating St Joseph’s (5th) in the Elimination Final, Colac (2nd) in the Semi-Final and Newtown & Chilwell (3rd) in the Preliminary Final.

Saints winger Damian McMahon received best-on-ground kudos for his Grand Final performance.