By Lance Jenkinson
Williamstown has suffered a cruel elimination from the Victorian Football League finals.
The Seagulls were centimetres away from playing in this year’s grand final, but fell by a point to Box Hill Hawks in a heart-stopping preliminary at Stannards Stadium on Sunday.
Seagulls forward Jaylon Thorpe had a chance to win the game with a set shot moments before the final siren, but his shot skewed across the face of goal and through for a behind.
Seagulls coach Andrew Collins was quick to point out to his team post game that Thorpe’s shot was not the reason why his team lost.
“He feels incredible responsibility,” Collins said.
“As I spoke to the group afterwards, we missed goals in the first quarter, we missed goals in the second and third quarters, we dropped marks, we had little moments.
“As a key forward, you’re probably going to have kicks after the siren to win the game again, some you’ll win, some you’ll lose, but it’s not your responsibility for this game.”
It was gut-wrenching loss for Williamstown.
The Seagulls have lost three consecutive preliminary finals since they won the flag in 2015.
“A couple of inches and we might’ve been singing a different tune,” Collins lamented.
“It just shows how hard they are to win.”
Williamstown’s day got off to the worst possible start. Veteran defender Peter Faulks injured his quadriceps in the warm up and had to be replaced by Tom Schnerring.
Schnerring was serviceable for the Seagulls, but was not a like-for-like replacement that would have been desired.
Despite the setback, Williamstown hit the field with purpose, opening up a nine-point quarter-time lead.
However the Seagulls failed to capitalise on a number of chances and gifted Box Hill a goal with a turnover.
It was enough to keep the Hawks interested and they came out firing in the second term to have scores locked on 41 apiece at half-time.
An arm wrestle ensued in the third term with the Hawks taking a five-point lead into three-quarter time before extending the lead to as much as 10 at the eight-minute mark.
Goals to Willie Wheeler and Michael Gibbons brought the Seagulls back to within a kick, but Thorpe could not complete the comeback as the Hawks held on by the barest of margins.
Despite falling one game short of the grand final again, Collins was proud of the year, particularly after a number of changes to the squad in the off season.
“It’s just enormous what this group went through this year and how they came together,” he said.
“It’s just really sad we lost by a point, but that’s the reality of it and we don’t get a chance to play next week.”
Ben Cavarra, Gibbons and Brett Bewley were the standouts across the midfield for Williamstown, while Joel Tippett, Jake Greiser and Brayden Monk stood tall in defence.
Wheeler, Sam Dunell and Nick Rodda kicked two goals apiece.
In the week that Gibbons took out his second J.J. Liston Trophy for best player in the VFL, Collins made one more plea to AFL recruiters to consider taking him at the draft later this year.
“For him to elevate his game to another level this season and win a second Liston medal, on top of his Frank Johnson Medal [best player in the VFL representative team], on top of his best player medal in the grand final in 2015, it shows incredible resilience and bravery to come back,” Collins said.
“We’re begging AFL clubs to take a chance on him because they will get rewarded 10 fold.”
