You only had to look at the smile on the face of Footscray backman Mark Austin to realise what it meant to be a VFL premiership player.
“It’s the best feeling in the world,”
Austin said.
“It’s a great win with a great bunch of blokes, super coach and all of the assistants.
“At the moment, I’m a bit too buggered to really soak it all up.”
Austin was exhausted after going toe-to-toe for 120 minutes with the VFL’s leading goalkicker, Sam Grimley.
Detonating Grimley’s impact on the match was critical to the Bulldogs’ chances.
Austin kept him to just one goal – a positional win for the Dogs.
“It’s good to keep him quiet for the day,” the 25-year-old key defender said.
“He had two shots and kicked one goal, so I was pretty happy with that.
“It was a big help from the boys up the field, because the ball wasn’t coming in so good.”
The Bulldogs’ defenders held firm all game. They cut off space in front of the leading Hawks forwards, took a number of intercept marks and spoiled when needed.
The only downfall was some uncharacteristic skill errors on the last line, resulting in a handful of turnover goals.
“If we didn’t turn it over so much, we would’ve won the game more comfortably,” Austin conceded.
“It’s just the pressure of the day and they were putting on enormous pressure and forcing us into turnovers.”
James Sicily was the most dangerous Box Hill forward, with a three-goal break-out game.
The Western Jets graduate has shown enough to suggest he might crack it for
senior involvement with Hawthorn in the AFL next season.
The other former Jets players involved in the VFL grand final, midfielders Brent Prismall and Michael Fogarty, were on the winning side.
Lance Jenkinson
