OUR VFL GRAND FINAL COVERAGE
Picture gallery: Footscray v Box Hill VFL grand final
Match report: Footscray premiers after beating Box Hill
Quarter x quarter: A dissection of the grand final
Lin Jong, Tom Campbell and Mark Austin speak to Lance Jenkinson after their VFL premiership win.
Lin Jong has emerged as a hot prospect after a stellar finals series with Footscray after its VFL premiership.
The Bulldogs were not sleeping on the talented Jong, rewarding his break-out season with a two-year contract extension.
Jong showed why the Dogs are so high on him with a game-breaking performance in Sunday’s VFL grand final triumph.
“I was so stoked to be able to stay with the club and happy they’ve had that faith in me to become a good player,” Jong told Star Weekly.
“I guess I’m just trying to pay them back now.”
Jong arrived at the kennel as a skinny kid from TAC Cup side Oakleigh Chargers with pick nine in the 2012 rookie draft.
From the first day he walked through the door, it was evident that at the least he was a goer, a player willing to throw his lightly built frame in the line of fire for the team, even if somewhat recklessly.
Through maturity, the 21-year-old has struck the right balance of when to use his body in the contest and when to sit on the fringe of the pack, where he can use his devastating burst to good effect.
The onballer reads the play so well in congestion.
When the grand final was on the line in the last quarter, Jong was the one that busted it open with his breakneck speed from the clearances.
Jong feels that he was one of the major beneficiaries of the Bulldogs opting to field a stand alone team in the VFL.
It gives him more certainty of where he will be playing from week to week and with coaches are on the same wavelength as those at the AFL arm of the club, it was easier to absorb instructions through consistent messages.
Playing against men 100 per cent of the time is another bonus.
It has been a far cry from the time he spent for Williamstown in the AFL Victoria development league last year, which is relative wilderness for an AFL-listed player.
“This year, I’ve been lucky enough to be playing ones without that pressure of being dropped,” he said.
“This has helped me so much and I’ve got a lot of self-confidence out of it.”
Jong was desperate to win a premiership at Etihad Stadium having lost a TAC Cup grand final with Oakleigh three years earlier.
From the team perspective, the pre-season critics gave the side no chance, but the players never doubted.
“At the start of the year, no one backed us to do much, not even make the finals,” Jong said.
“We’ve just jelled so well together this year and we all had that passion to win in the VFL as well.”
Tom Campbell got the chance to experience the best of both worlds in 2014.
Campbell spent the first half of the season fighting to get a spot in the Western Bulldogs AFL side and would eventually seal a berth as a key forward and second ruckman behind Will Minson.
Once the AFL side was eliminated from the finals race, it was back to the VFL for the versatile tall, where he played a key role in Footscray’s first premiership win in the state league competition since 1924.
“I got to sample the best of VFL and AFL this year,” Campbell told Star Weekly.
“It was great to finish off the AFL season off in the side, but to come back and play in the VFL, especially when we were in such great form and to go and win the premiership was just a great experience.”
Campbell was able to dictate terms at the stoppages in the grand final after the Hawks decided not to play Ben McEvoy, who is being considered as a late call-up for Hawthorn’s AFL grand final side against Sydney on Saturday.
Campbell was the dominant big man on the ground, be it in the ruck or as a resting forward, working in tandem with Ayce Cordy.
“Both sides have got great talls and we knew going into the game that it was going to be a fierce contest,” Campbell said.
“Our big men acquitted themselves well and I think we clearly won the day.”
Campbell had plenty of runners to work with at the stoppages.
He felt the foot speed of the Bulldogs’ onballers late in the game proved the difference.
“Some of our explosive players like Lin Jong, Jason Johannisen and Brett Goodes were incredible for us today,” he said.
Campbell said the VFL success would foster a “winner culture” at the kennel.
You only had to look at the beaming smile from ear to ear on the face of Footscray defender Mark Austin to realise what it meant to be a VFL premiership player.
“It’s the best feeling in the world,” he told Star Weekly.
“It’s a great win with a great bunch of blokes, super coach and all of the assistants.
“At the moment I’m a bit too buggered to really soak it all up.”
Austin was so tired after going toe-to-toe for 120 minutes with the VFL’s leading goalkicker Sam Grimley.
Detonating Grimley’s impact on the match was critical to the Bulldogs’ chances.
Austin kept him to just one goal – a positional win for the Dogs.
“It’s good to keep him quiet for the day,” the 25-year-old key defender said.
“He had two shots and kicked one goal so I was pretty happy with that.
“It was a big help from the boys up the field because the ball wasn’t coming in so good.”
The Bulldogs defence held firm all game.
They cut off space in front of the leading Hawks forwards, took a number of intercept marks and spoiled when they needed.
The only downfall was some uncharacteristic skill errors from the last line, resulting in a handful of turnover goals.
“If we didn’t turn it over so much, we would’ve won the game more comfortably,” Austin conceded.
“It’s just the pressure of the day and they were putting on enormous pressure and forcing us into turnovers.”
James Sicily was most dangerous Box Hill forward in a three-goal break-out game.
The Western Jets graduate has shown enough to suggest he might crack it for senior involvement with Hawthorn in the AFL next season.
The Jets’ two other former players involved in the VFL grand final with midfielders Brent Prismall and Michael Fogarty on the winning Bulldogs side.
