Footscray’s dominance continues in Water Polo Victoria’s men’s state league 1.
The Bulldogs made it three state championship titles in five seasons when they overcame the highly-fancied Melbourne Collegians Falcons, 14-10, in the grand final at Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre earlier this month.
Long-time Bulldogs’ coach Peter Smith is lapping up success, knowing all too well how tough it can be to climb to the summit.
“We had a tough period through the late ’80s and early ’90s, when we played in about five or six grand finals in a row without getting the chocolates,” Smith recalled. “This particular group now has been very successful.”
Smith, a five-time Footscray premiership coach, rated this team ‘the pick of the bunch’.
He said the Bulldogs faced many obstacles this season, but never wavered from their focus.
“To win this one, which wasn’t to be expected – we’d been up and down with injuries and suspensions during the year – but we finally got a full team and showed our true colours when it came down to it, so I was ecstatic,” Smith said. “It’s probably the best win from my point of view that I’ve had, and I’ve been coaching Footscray on and off since the 1980s.”
Footscray was the underdog throughout the finals series. It was hammered by 17 goals in week one of finals by Melbourne Collegians.
The Falcons were red-hot favourites after going through the regular season undefeated, holding an astronomical goal difference of plus-202.
They re-grouped from the week one loss to soundly beat Monash University 22-9 in the preliminary final.
It was the pick-me-up the Bulldogs needed leading into a grand final.
“They played really well, the boys in the prelim,” Smith said. “They got a lot of confidence out of that game because Monash have been very competitive all year.
“To beat them the way we did … we sort of took the foot off the pedal in the last quarter to have a bit of a rest, with a two-day break between the grand final and the prelim.”
Footscray was in control of the grand final from the outset, leading 4-1 at quarter-time.
The only time the Bulldogs felt any scoreboard pressure came in the third quarter, when Melbourne Collegians closed to within a goal, but they kept composure and completed their back-to-back premiership mission.
Goalkeeper Milan Stojlovic had a game to savour for Footscray, while Daniel Egan, Jamie Oglvie-Lee and Cameron Gilmor were among the best. The Bulldogs were captained by Ben Smith, a former Victorian Seals state player.
If they can keep their squad together, the Bulldogs should remain in the premiership mix for some time yet.
“We’ve got a really good mix of some experienced senior players as well as some good 19 and 20 year old players,” Peter Smith said.
“Three of them have played international water polo at junior Australian level for their country.
“They’re used to playing against big guys in eastern Europe and so forth, which I think stood us in good stead with that strong youth presence plus the experience of our senior guys.”
Meanwhile, Footscray also took out the women’s state league 1 title.
The Bulldogs went into the grand final as underdogs against minor premiers NYP Dragons, but came away with a 7-5 win.
