Tara Murray
The old adage that first to 100 usually wins unfortunately didn’t ring true for Williamstown in the Victorian Football League.
The Seagulls faced the Brisbane Lions on Saturday in a semi final for a second straight year.
Hoping to turn the tables on the Lions, it was heartbreak again for the Seagulls.
In a high scoring affair, the Lions got over the line, winning 19.16 (130)-18.5 (113) and earning a spot in a preliminary final.
Seagulls director of coaching Jeff Andrews said it was a hard day at the office.
“It was a good game of football,” he said. “First to 100 normally wins but it wasn’t us this week.
“It was a real free flowing game and it was a game of momentum.”
The Lions kicked the first three goals of the game with Andrews saying he thought they were going to race away with it.
The Seagulls got back into it and it was game on at half time.
Andrews said it went back and forth throughout the second half.
“We got out by 23 points in the third quarter. They were able to kick a couple of goals later and then hit the lead in the last quarter.
“It was a good game of footy in tough conditions.”
Brodie McLaughlin kicked six goals for the Seagulls, to take his tally to 14 in the three finals matches.
Andrews said McLaughlin had started to find the form that had seen him share the leading goalkicker award last season.
Corey Ellison kicked four goals and was another standout.
Andrews said Joel Fitzgerald, who had 23 disposals, and Jake Greiser down back were the others that stood out.
For the Seagulls, they finish in the same spot they did 12 months ago.
Andrews thinks they are better placed than where they were last year.
“We’ll do a deep dive and look into it,” he said. “There was a patch in the middle of the year where it didn’t go the way we want it to after starting 7-1.
“We had different challenges with Finn O’Dwyer and Luke Parks not available at times.
“We had massive turnover last season, we don’t expect to have that this year.
“There’s been a growth in a lot of players and we’ve set the foundations for the future.”
Meanwhile two Williamstown players have been named in the 40-man team of the year squad.
Corey Ellison, who kicked 30 goals, and Luke Parks, who was outstanding in defence, have been named in the squad.
The final team will be named at the awards night on September 15.
Andrews said they could have easily had some more players included in the squad.
