ALTONA made a brilliant comeback with two goals in the final three minutes to steal a 3-3 draw with competition heavyweight Hawthorn in the last round of men’s state league 1 on Saturday.
After controlling much of the first half and taking a 1-0 lead through a perfectly executed corner from Chris Coleman, the A’s let their advantage slip through sloppy defending.
Hawthorn raced to a commanding 3-1 lead, which appeared enough to win the match, until a remarkable turn of events in the final few minutes.
Talented midfielder Jesse Gatt was on the end of some brilliant passing from centre halves and co-captains Steve Campbell and Tyson Priddle, and slotted the ball past the Hawthorn keeper to give the A’s a late sniff.
The A’s kept pressing and with just 40 seconds on the clock, Ben Burriss tapped the ball into the circle. The ball was fired towards the net where goal sneak Mick Gallo was on hand to deflect past the Hawthorn keeper.
Hawthorn protested the goal’s legitimacy but it stood and the A’s salvaged an unlikely point to finish the season on a high.
While Altona finished in a similar ladder position to last year, co-coaches Greg Drake and Ben Guy were pleased with the steps the team has taken this season.
“We blooded a number of young players, including Josh Horton, Kieran Symons and George Miller,” Guy said.
“The blokes in the 20-to-25-year age bracket all stood up a level this year, including Gatt, Gallo and Pat Phillips.
“So it was pleasing, despite the results not indicating as much.”
Drake, who coached his last game, is confident the foundations are in place for a push to the finals in the not-too-distant future.
“We know we have put in place some building blocks for this side to be very good in coming seasons,” he said.
“We weren’t relying on our
older, experienced heads like Priddle, Mathew Higgins and Matthew Guest [away on Canada international duty all season], so there will be a few teams next year that are going to be surprised by how much this group has grown and developed.”
Altona life member Ian Bartlett was a member of the silver medal-winning Australian over-40s team at the inaugural FIH Masters World Cup.
Hockey Victoria
Men’s state league 1: Hawthorn 3 Altona 3, MCC 4 Footscray 3
Women’s state league 1: Footscray 2 MCC 0, Greensborough 4 Altona 0
