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IT was years in the making, but Altona has fulfilled its destiny and joined the pantheon of Western Region Football League premiership teams.
The Vikings added a dash of purple to the record books with a history-making first division1 flag on Saturday.
Jubilant scenes broke out after the Vikings edged a crestfallen Spotswood by one point in a cliffhanger grand final at Avalon Airport Oval.
‘‘Unbelievable, amazing, incredible — it’s all those words,’’ Vikings captain Josh Russo told the Weekly. ‘‘It’s a fantastic feeling.’’
Watton Street was awash with the purple of the Vikings, the green of the Woodsmen and gold on either side as the masses converged to watch an instant classic.
The best two sides over the duration of the season produced 120 minutes of do-or-die football that had the gathering mesmerised from start to finish.
The opening five minutes set the tone with both teams tentative, congregating large numbers around the ball and unwilling to give the other side an inch.
It took seven minutes for the deadlock to be broken, when the hard-to-capture Steven Kennedy filtered the ball out to Ryan Green for the first goal to the Vikings.
The feeling-out process continued until Woodsmen forward Christian Elliott launched a 55-metre drop punt for an answering goal that settled the nerves of both sides.
Josh Rafferty dribbled one through for the Vikings a minute later before Woodsman Jason Cloke picked the ball up off the back of the pack to make it a goal-for-goal first term.
Lurking as a giant shadow over the Woodsmen was their opening term goalkicking woes.
Elementary errors in front of the big sticks left the defending champions a mere five points ahead at quarter-time when their early dominance suggested it could have been more.
The trend continued in the second term and the Vikings made them pay dearly.
The minor premiers have shown a propensity to score quickly. They unleashed with four goals in four minutes midway through the second term to get the game on their terms.
Tyler Healy’s blistering speed was a potent force as he got the one-two to burst out of sight and goal.
Mitch Turnbull got his second of the quarter with a nifty soccer goal. Ziad Kadour made it three in quick succession but was dumped after kicking the goal and the umpire paid a double free kick. The smart forward said ‘thank you very much’ and put the Vikings 16 points up.
The Woodsmen needed a spark and Cloke provided it.
The playing assistant bravely hurled himself into an aerial contest on centre wing and finished in the hands of the training with wobbly legs, but he won the free kick for his side, leaving direct opponent Joey Halloran with a bloodied nose from the sickening collision.
Time enough for the Woodsmen to settle and they got their momentum-stemming goal through Torin Baker, cutting the deficit to eight.
Andrew Fowler had a chance to stem it further, but put his shot out of bounds on the full, which was another quarter of missed opportunities for the Woodsmen, who kicked six behinds in the term.
The Vikings stretched their lead to 17 at half-time when Turnbull led Woodsman defender Matson Lynch under the high ball and mopped up for his third of the scintillating quarter.
Altona was daring to dream what could be when Richard Knight put through the first goal of the third term.
The Vikings’ lead was out to a game-high 22 points and they had all the momentum.
Spotswood, however, were not about the wave the white flag.
This was their sixth trip to the grand final in as many years and they know all too well how fast a game can turn.
Elliott breathed life into the Woodsmen with a spring-heeled mark and set-shot goal. Player-coach Chris O’Keefe leapt high to mark and make it consecutive goals.
When Cloke sneaked through his third, the Woodsmen were within seven points.
O’Keefe’s late chance slammed into the post and there was exactly a kick in it at three-quarter-time.
In a signal of intent, Spotswood broke away from the opening bounce of the last quarter to have a shot on goal 10 seconds in, only for O’Keefe to register another behind.
Woodsmen ruckman Ben Perry looked certain to wrench back the lead for his side until a magnificent lunging tackle by Vikings defender David Barnaby denied him.
Cloke put the Woodsmen in front after running with the flight of the ball to take a contested mark and goal with a banana, before Chase Morgan extended the lead to eight as he emerged from the pack to goal. If Barnaby had not made that lunging tackle on Perry minutes earlier, the Woodsmen could well have been out of sight and on their way to a fifth title in six years.
As it stood, the Vikings were just two kicks away, then one kick when Jordan Robbins pierced the big sticks from an incredibly tight angle to cut the margin to three. The Woodsmen responded with a fifth goal to Cloke, taking the lead out to nine.
The see-saw nature of the game suggested another twist in the tale, but this was orchestrated from the coaches’ box by Vikings mastermind Anthony Eames, who moved ruckman Liam Gardiner into the forward 50 to cause havoc with his height. Gardiner took two sky-scraping marks and was ice cool from both set shots to wrest back the lead for the Vikings.
In a frantic finish, the goals beckoned for Woodsmen captain Tom Langlands, but his left foot kick across the body resulted in a behind and the Vikings held a slender one point lead.
The Vikings transferred play back into their attacking half and Knight was the recipient of a lucky holding-the-ball decision, but the Woodsmen could hardly complain with most of the 50-50 calls seeming to go their way.
Knight had the job in front of him, went back and popped it straight over the goal umpire’s hat to put the Vikings seven points up.
The Woodsmen refused to go away, Langlands making amends for his earlier miss in the quarter to bridge the gap to one, but the Vikings regained their seven-point advantage when Reece Miles sharked a Jeremy Bond centre bounce tap and delivered at full stride into the forward line, where Brett Shiels finished with a goal.
The Woodsmen had one last roll of the dice after Mahmoud El-Hawli posted a major with 10 seconds left on the timekeeper’s watch and one point separating the sides. From the ensuing centre bounce, the Woodsmen got a free kick but, instead of going long and deep into the forward 50, sent the ball diagonally as time ran out, sending the purple haze into a frenzied celebration.
2012 WRFL GRAND FINAL SCOREBOARD
Division 1
Seniors: Altona 14.7 (91) d Spotswood 12.18 (90). Altona — Goals: M. Turnbull 3, Z. Kadour 2, R. Knight 2, L. Gardiner 2, J. Rafferty, B. Shiels, R. Green, T. Healy, J. Robbins. Best: R. Miles, T. Healy, M. Turnbull, J. Russo, S. Kennedy, L. Gardiner. Spotswood — Goals: J. Cloke 5, C. Elliott 2, C. O’Keefe, T. Langlands, T. Baker, M. El-Hawli, C. Morgan. Best: S. Wood, T. Langlands, B. Perry, M. Lynch, C. O’Keefe, J. Cloke.
Reserves: Altona 10.14 (74) d Port Melbourne Colts 7.7 (49). Altona — Goals: B. Comeadow 3, B. Miller 2, A. Magnabosco 2, J. Allen, B. Fogarty, A. Vivoda. Best: B. Fogarty, D. Molloy, J. Russo, B. Comeadow, J. Allen, J. Mead. Port Melbourne Colts — Goals: K. Williams 3, J. Turnbull, M. Burns, M. Bellingham, E. Stevens. Best: D. White, T. Vuli, D. Vuli, K. Williams, J. Turnbull, E. Stevens.
U18s: Altona 12.11 (83) lt Hoppers Crossing 15.18 (108). Altona — Goals: M. Norton 4, B. MacArtney 2, J. Robinson, H. Azzopardi, L. Allen, O. Abou-Zeid, T. Szanyi, M. El Houli. Best: O. Abou-Zeid, M. El Houli, M. Norton, W. Ward, J. Cook, J. Johnson. Hoppers Crossing — Goals: M. Maglogiannis 6, J. Dorgan 3, M. McGrath 2, B. Jago, C. Muscat, K. Traynor, M. Appleby. Best: M. Maglogiannis, C. Muscat, N. Jones, B. Donald, B. Jago, J. Dorgan.
