Harper Sercombe
Williamstown’s season is over in the Victorian Football League.
The Seagulls lost to the Brisbane Lions in a semi final at Brighton Homes Arena in Ipswich on Saturday afternoon.
From the outset, the Lions had the rub of the green, scoring the first four goals of the game.
The Seagulls kicked the next two, through Daly Andrews and Nick Ebinger, before the Lions kicked another on the stroke of half time to give them a 28 point lead heading into the main break.
Although the margin was five goals, inaccuracy left the door open ajar for the Seagulls with the Lions scoring 5.12 in the first half.
Three goals in a row for the Seagulls in the third term got the lead back to just 11 points at the 10 minute mark, however the Lions kicked back into gear to stretch the lead back to 23 points at three quarter time.
In the last, the Lions added another four majors to the Seagulls one, giving them the 12.16 (88)-7.6 (48) win.
Marty Hore was once again a standout for the Seagulls, picking up 32 disposals, 31 of which were kicks, and nine marks.
Finbar O’Dwyer was another solid contributor for Williamstown with 23 disposals and 13 marks.
Josh Pickess slotted two majors, while Joel Ottavi, Mitch Cox, defender Oscar McDonald, Ebinger and Andrews were the single goal scorers.
Seagulls’ director of coaching Jeff Andrews said they were never able to get the game on their terms.
“We never got the game on our terms, as we would like to have and needed to have and they were able to execute the plans and their good players played well and we were just up against up,” he said.
“They just kept getting the ball, they dominated clearance, they dominated the inside 50s so we were defending all day and eventually the dam wall broke.”
After finishing second last in 2022, reaching a semi final, sitting two premiership points outside of the top four was a roaring success for the stand=alone VFL club.
“When you look at it in totality across the 12 months, it’s been a step in the right direction that we wanted to take and needed to take,” Andrews said.
“Saturday was disappointing, but in the next couple of days, I’m sure we’ll look towards the whole season rather than just Saturday.
“Most of our recruits have been really important for us, Marty and Oscar down back have been terrific and that’s enabled a couple of other boys to grow.
“Those boys coming in, they brought AFL experience and performed on match day throughout the whole year and we had some good growth in our young guys.”
To improve in 2024, Andrews said the stability of the list, that they weren’t able to have last pre-season will be vital for the Seagulls to have another crack at silverware next season.
“We’ll be examining every aspect of our footy department and try and make it better from staff and coaching to players,” he said.
“Majority of the boys staying means that we can go out and be really targeted with the players we need for certain parts of the ground that we need to upskill or improve.”
