Three is the magic number for Williamstown Lacrosse Club in 2017.
The Fearons completed a three-peat of premierships with an 8-6 win over Camberwell Chiefs in the Lacrosse Victoria men’s state league grand final at Angliss Reserve on Saturday.
Three was the amount of finals Williamstown had to win to get its hands on the winners’ shield and it achieved the feat from third spot on the ladder.
The triumph came on a day when the Fearons secured three premierships, with the division 1 and division 2 sides also winning grand finals.
Fearons captain Matthew Price said the premiership haul was a testament to the team-first attitude of all players at the club.
“I couldn’t be more proud of the way our team and how our club went about it,” Price said.
“Our motto during the finals was, it’s all about the other 15 blokes in the side, not the one.
“That’s the way we’ve played for the whole finals series and that’s the way the whole club goes about it.
“What won it for us was our resolve, our team play and the fact we were so focused on each other rather than ourselves.
“It was something that you want to be a part of because the boys are all so together that you couldn’t have beaten us on the day.”
Williamstown coach Damien Orr put an emphasis on making a fast start to the state league grand final, but he could not have imagined his side would be a healthy four goals up at half-time.
The Fearons bossed the opening half, sparked by three early goals to youngster Callan Gibson and two to Kade Robinson, who ended up with three for the game.
“It was massive – that’s exactly the start we were after,” Price said.
“The young kids were awesome again.
“It was Cal Gibson this week, he’s 18 years old and shot three goals in the first half.”
Camberwell, featuring in its first grand final since 1939, came out strong after half-time, scoring the only two goals of the third quarter to cut the deficit to two goals.
But Williamstown steadied in the fourth quarter, maintaining the lead it held at three-quarter time.
The Fearons defence, led by club best-and-fairest Huw Wilson, Chris Welsh and Matthew Neumann-Duffin, was steadfast in its denial of Camberwell’s attack.
Whenever the Chiefs did manage to penetrate, Fearons goalkeeper Evan Willis more often than not denied them with crucial saves.
“The defence was awesome,” Price said. “They just stood up, kept pushing them back and were very stoic.”
Williamstown’s best player was Gil Cordell-Radford. The homegrown youngster produced what Price considered to be the perfect individual finals game.
“They gave the MVP to a Camberwell bloke who was really good, but the young bloke, Gil, was our best-on-ground by a mile,” Price said.
“That’s what big finals are all about is executing and he did it.”
