It was a proud weekend for Williamstown CYMS, deservedly sewing up the Victorian Amateur Football Association Premier C minor premiership.
CYs coach Mathew Montebello said it was an honour that his club could “hang its hat on,” though one the players and coaches will have to move on quickly from.
The CYs have been the most dominant team in the competition, winning 10 straight games and mostly with blowout margins.
Their victory ensured that Fitzroy, who CYs beat by 22 points in the top of the table clash at Fearon Reserve on Saturday, would not take a psychological edge into September.
Fitzroy was the last team to beat CYs way back in May.
“They put their best foot forward to come and beat us,” Montebello said.
“They wanted that psychological thing over us going into finals, that we hadn’t beaten them.
“Credit to them, they brought it and they brought it hard, but it was really good for the boys to get that win for a bit of belief.
“We know that we can beat them and we know how we can beat them, so it’s about replicating it in the finals now.”
Most importantly for Williamstown CYMS, it was another competitive game.
The past two weeks, CYs have been made to earn their points, which is in stark contrast to most of their games this season.
Montebello was concerned by how easily his team had cruised past the bulk of their opponents during this winning streak.
“Of the 17 games that we’ve played, only five of them have been decided by five goals or under, every other game has been 10 goals or over,” he said.
“We need these sort of games going into finals. It’s good that two weeks in a row the boys have been challenged that they’ve responded and responded well.”
Montebello’s dampened enthusiasm for the minor premiership is borne out of recent history.
The CYs players were quickly reminded of the hard work still ahead for them to reach the grand final.
“I keep reminding the boys, the previous three years, twice we’ve seen the team that finished on top get knocked out in straight sets,” Montebello said.
What Montebello was not playing down was CYs big win over Fitzroy. This was a significant hurdle for the CYs players to overcome.
“It was a great team effort,” he said.
“There was contributors across the board.”
None were bigger than Tom Johnstone.
Johnstone, one of the form players in the competition, refused to yield to the extra attention put on him by the Fitzroy midfielders.
“Second week in a row, he was by far the best on ground,” Montebello said. “He’s gone to another level over the past month.
“He was heavily targeted, but he just bounces up and keeps going. I think Fitzroy threw multiple blokes at him, they had blokes hanging off him, but he just takes them into the contest and next minute it’s another clearance.”
Other keys to the CYs victory were ruckman Sam Callard, stepping up admirably in the absence of the injured Dylan Jones, Yuma Hemphill and Russell Ackerly, dominant in the middle, and Jack Noonan, dangerous up forward.
Williamstown CYMS will travel to Old Geelong in the last round before finals.
