Tara Murray
The Western Crusaders remarkable run in the Gridiron Victoria competition, continues with the club claiming a fifth straight Vic Bowl on Saturday.
The Crusaders entered the grand final as favourites against the Croydon Rangers and the side was able to put in a clinical display on the way to a 50-12 win.
Crusaders’ Tyson Garnham said it was pretty special to have won the biggest prize of the year for a fifth time.
“It’s really good,” he said. “Obviously that is the goal and every win is different each year.
“Each year there’s some new people in the team. Some guys were playing in their first and others in their second.
“Then you’ve got others like myself that have been part of all five. The goal is the same each year.”
Garnham said he believed there were about eight guys who had been part of all five Vic Bowl wins.
While Saturday’s match was a convincing one, it didn’t start that way.
Garnham said they thought they would be in for a tough match.
“I think the first couple of series we scored and then they scored so we thought it would be quite a close game.
“They couldn’t stop our offence and we kept scoring, while our defence was able to hold out.
“The score line started to blow out.”
The margin also allowed the Crusaders the opportunity to rotate their players. With two teams coming into one for the finals, the side had plenty of options.
“After half time we started to get everyone involved and we were really happy with that,” he said
“There’s people who are new to the sport, so it was good to get them involved in the grand final.
“The score line definitely helped with that.”
Junior Alama was named the grand final most valuable player.
The Crusaders dominance of the season was also recognised with some individual awards that were revealed.
Matthew Krul was named the league most valuable player, Garnham was the offensive most valuable player and Joel Iskra was named the linesman most valuable player.
Garnham said they would have a break before thinking what was next, but winning six in a row is now the goal.
He said it had been a really big year, with two seasons in the one year following COVID-19.
Some players will be part of the state side for the national championships in April, with Garnham saying that 70 per cent of the state squad could come from their club.
In a big boost for the club, new club rooms are being built and will hopefully be ready for next season.
“It’s been pretty hard the last five years or as long as I’ve been playing at the club,” he said.
“We’ve had to play away as the rooms haven’t been good enough.
“It’s exciting that next year we’ll have the chance to play at our home ground which we couldn’t do this year due to the rooms and the floods.
“We’re looking forward to having our own club rooms and having some of these trophies on display.”
