Evan Willis has produced a match for the ages, guiding Williamstown to its first premiership since 2012 in Lacrosse Victoria men’s state league.
The goaltender pulled off a raft of spectacular saves to be named the most valuable player for the Fearons in their edge-of-your-seat 7-6 grand final win over western suburbs rivals’ Footscray at Malvern on Saturday.
It capped a fine season for Willis, who was also named the club’s best-and-fairest player.
“He was brilliant,” Fearons’ coach Damien Orr told Star Weekly. “He must’ve had 12 saves for the game. He’s been working hard and deserved the plaudits he got.”
Willis was just one component of a water-tight Fearons’ defence. The Fearons put up one of the lowest winning scores in grand final history, such was the dominance of the players at the back, including Sam Marquard, Huw Wilson, Chris Welsh and Matt Neumann-Duffin.
The contrast between the Fearons’ first meeting with Footscray in the regular season, when the Bulldogs scored a massive 17 goals, to Saturday’s grit and grind could not have been starker.
“That team scored 17 goals against us in the first round, and they only scored 19 against us for the rest of the year [in three further meetings],” Orr said. “I’d need to look back to the history of it … but that would be one of the lowest winning scores in a grand final in the modern incarnation of the game.”
Williamstown was fairly dominant across the four quarters. The only trouble was their lack of efficiency in attack, which opened the door for Footscray to make a late run at the premiership.
“We dominated everywhere except on the scoreboard,” Orr lamented.
The Bulldogs trailed by two goals at three-quarter time, but found a way past Willis twice to level scores later on.
The man who put Williamstown on the scoreboard first in the game would also score the match-winning goal – Tom Pike was the man of the moment with a late winner.
Despite the scoreboard pressure, Orr said there was no panic in the Fearons’ camp.
“We were sort of sure in our mind what we could do and realised that, if we stuck to what we do, we’d get the result,” Orr said. “We were really dogged in that way.”
Ben Newman and Aaron Lawman scored two goals each, noteworthy contributions in such a low-scoring game. Sean Clarke had an important role to play at the face-off after Noah Jenney injured a shoulder.
It was a special day for Orr too, who joined his father, Michael, in winning premierships as both a player and coach at Williamstown.
“I think we’re the first to do that as a father and son, so that was pretty nice.”
