KEVIN
Sheedy’s Midas touch helped Old Xaverians last Sunday equal the VAFA
record of winning six consecutive A Section premierships.
During
the build up to his preliminary final against Carlton, Sheeds recorded
a personalised video message for Xavs as they headed for their sixth
Adamson Cup.
Sheeds’
message to Xavs was not to think of the five flags they had won but
another opportunity awaits.
“At
Essendon we are in a similar position in that we could reflect on the
past but all that matters is now,” Sheedy said.
The
tape was shown at an emotional team meeting on Thursday night.
The
club was mourning the sudden death 24-hours earlier of senior mid-fielder
Stuart Skidmore’s sister.
Training
was cancelled and former Xavier College principal Father Stoney addressed
the team.
Sheedy’s
son Sam is a student at Xavier but he felt awkward helping out Xavs
because one of his favourite players, Garry Foulds, was coaching the
opposition St Bernards.
Sheeds
wasn’t to know, but the Bernies, chasing just their second A Section
flag in four attempts since1963, had Geelong coach and former Sheedy
assistant and Essendon premiership player Mark Thompson address them
on Friday.
So
many challenges
MICHAEL
Blood, captain of Xavs during their dominance of the Amateurs since
1995, had a unique look in his eyes forty-five minutes after his club
had a final quarter blitzkrieg.
Xavs
kicked 10 goals to one to record a 45-point victory over St Bernards
in the 2000 A Section Grand Final at Elsternwick Park to win, 22.14-146
to 16.5-101.
It
wasn’t the 12 stitches to a wound above his left eye, picked up during
a clash with team-mate Jamie Kay in the second quarter, that made his
eyes look menacing.
Blood’s
eyes were piercing during the traditional Channel 31 interview with
the premier captain.
In
the same interview for the past two years Blood’s eyes were dream-boat
blue he was that relaxed.
This
year they had turned to a shade of destroyer grey.
Blood’s
look can be explained by Xavs’ challenges in 2000.
They
must have seemed to have numbered 2000 for the coaching panel headed
by Tim O’Shaughnessy who picked up his third flag as coach.
Xavs
had 11 players from the 1999 premiers represented at Elsternwick Park
in the seniors last week.
It
was the most changes from any of their premiership teams.
In
1996 there were nine changes from 1995, in 1997 five changes from 1996,
in 1998 seven changes from 1997 and in 1999 nine changes from 1998.
Out
from the successful 1999 team this year were: Sam Tucker, Ted Woodruff,
Richard Coughlan and Bryan Hilbert played in last Sunday’s reserves
premiership, Matt Bourke - eight goals - retired, Collingwood premiership
player Craig Kelly - eight marks at centre-half back - temporarily retired
as is Simon Wood who had 35 possessions, Ben Coughlan with a hamstring
injury, David Rennex a biceps tear and Damian Stoney a broken leg.
Also
in the reserves on Sunday were senior premiership players Anthony Keyhoe
and Luke Hannebery.
Ominously,
they should all be available next year.
These
player losses were one of many burdens for the coach of the past two
flags.
Mid-season
19-year-olds Richard Coughlan, along with his senior team-mate Lucian
Deane-Johns and Michael Allen retired for various reasons.
“This
was a big set-back,” O’Shaughnessy said.
“Those
guys were the future.”
This
was one of the moments when doubt crept into the Xaverians’ make up
but champion clubs answer with resolution.
Maybe
it was O’Shaughnessy’s affinity with youth, he is a PE teacher at Melbourne
Grammar, that got Richard Coughlan and Deane-Johns back. The latter
played in the senior premiership.
Last
Saturday morning 26 hours before the grand final, after a light training
session, a pale O’Shaughnessy revealed another issue he had been tackling.
Tim’s
father Bryan O’Shaughnessy died five weeks earlier following complications
with stomach cancer.
Xaverians
are family based and a bereavement is shared by all.
With
confidence Tim O’Shaughnessy said: “This grand final will be the
toughest test during our (Xaverians) run”.
Xavs
have only lost two second-semi finals since 1995.
The
first in 1996 and the other a fortnight ago to the Bernies by 22 points.
After
turning with two wins and seven losses in 1996 the Xavs came from behind
to defeat Collegians by five points.
How
deflating was that for the only remaining foundation club of the VAFA
?
In
2001 the Lions will play in C Section for the first time since the VAFA
started in 1892 after having been demoted twice in four years.
St
Bernards coach of the past four years Garry Foulds, an Essendon premiership
player and All-Australian, was also feeling the pinch of an Old Xaverian
grand final defeat.
On
Tuesday he was asked about coaching next year and Foulds replied: “I’m
not sure. I’m having a few days to think about it”.
“I’d
like to if I could,” Foulds said.
Foulds
might want to consider these figures before he makes a decision.
The
other clubs Xavs who have defeated in the grand finals have not
excelled.
University
Blues, who lost by 78 points in 1995, played in the first semi in 1996
and have not re-appeared in them until this year and they have had four
coaches in that time; Scotch, which lost in 1997 by five points and
1998 by 61 points, has had a change in coach and hasn’t played in the
past two finals series; last year Old Melburnians, who lost by 51 points,
have had a change of coach and are appealing their relegation to the
VAFA Executive.
This
year’s campaign by Xavs is given more credence with 2000 being compressed.
At
least in 1996 Xavs had three weeks rest throughout the season - two
during the home-and-away and the other in the first week of the McIntyre
Final Four system played over four weeks.
In
2000 under a three-week format there was only one week’s rest on
offer
and that was for the winner of the second-semi. The first and second
semis were played on the first Sunday of the finals so as to cater
for
the Olympics. An ageing and injured Xavs list could have done with
the break.
The
Bernies reported the second-semi was the toughest physically of the
season.
St
Kevins, who lost by four points to Xavs in the preliminary, were exhausted
too.
Using
his exercise physiology skills refined at Collingwood during its 1990
premiership, O’Shaughnessy was able to freshen up his team.
The
club’s fortitude and self belief kept the players’ attitude primed.
This
was exemplified by the veteran Blood who dominated the ruck in the definitive
last quarter in which Xavs outscored the Bernies by 59 points.
New
medal should be struck
Blood,
one of the most decorated players in VAFA history, should have a medal
named in his honour when he retires.
It
should be for the player of the A Section finals series such have been
his performances over the six series.
Particular
inspiration for this concept comes form Blood’s mid-fielder Adam Sassi,
27, during the 2000 campaign. While Sassi won’t receive one for
his deeds of the past three weeks, they are recorded here. A member
of the first three Xaverian premierships Sassi retired in 1998 after
hamstring complications. He came back last year but those hamstrings
kept on twinging.
This
year Sassi did a rigorous pre-season only to pull out at the start after
another upper leg problem. Perseverance is a wonderful quality
and by the second half of the year Sassi was getting game time.
A score of men have etched their name on an invisible honour board during
VAFA grand finals that have been played in Heidelberg, St Kilda, Swan
St Richmond and Elsternwick Park.
Adam
Sassi, with 25 possessions, joins the group that includes Phil Kingston,
Phil McLaughlin, Peter Cox and Bernie Dunn as great finals players.
He was the Xaverians go-to-man when defeat loomed in all three finals.
Sassi looks like Zorro with his long brunette moustache and zig-zag
pack breaks.
Even
if his hair is thin, his torso stocky and his away-shorts grey he is
a hero to the Xaverian supporters isolated by their continual success.
At a team meeting on the eve of the grand final Sassi referred to his
and Xaverians’ challenges this year by stating: “I would give up
all three of my premiership medals to win this (2000) flag”.
It
inspired many of the players to write Adam’s name on the back of one
hand and Stuart (Skidmore) on the other.
Matchings
work well
THE
Xavs coaching panel of Tim O’Shaughnessy, Pat Hawkins, Ian Aitken,
Terry Peters and Chris Mortensen worked key match-ups to their advantage.
Simon
Lethlean, who has suffered from leg injury since the South Australian
match in May, took Adam Merrington deep into a forward pocket.
Merrington had battled a calf strain for a month and, it was revealed
after the game, he had a broken finger.
The
best player of the season rarely showed his trademark of breaking the
back lines he was removed so far from the contests.
Lethlean
set up a few early plays but his mark on the game came in the last-quarter
crushing when he had numerous possessions including the first of Xavs’
10 last-quarter goals.
The
normally effervescent Lethlean has looked demure in recent weeks but
his on-the-run major at the two-minute mark of the last quarter to reduce
the Bernies’ three-quarter time lead to seven points started a chain
reaction.
Andy
Gowers, who played in his first flag since Hawthorn’s 1991 premiership,
was suffering a broken right hand but he worried the young Steve McKeon
out of vital marks at centre-half forward.
Foulds
moved McKeon, whose second half of the season was marred by a stint
in hospital with an infection in his hand’s webbing, to defence in the
last quarter but Gowers followed and he put his team in front with an
experienced goal at the seven-minute mark.
Moments
before this the magic evaporated from Nick Mitchell’s left foot when
he missed two set shots from in front at 35 metres.
You
could smell the attitude of Xaverians.
Mitchell
has averaged six goals a game this year and Dave Landrigan, the only
Xav in this group to have tasted grand final defeat, got the gig on
him.
Landrigan
played in the 1991 B Section Grand Final which St Bernards won 5.5-35
to 4.3-27. An awkward kicking style caused Landrigan to be dropped
from the 1996 team and it looked to be his nemesis this campaign too.
Ironically,
with Mitchell’s kicking being below par Landrigan’s was confident.
On
balance it was time for the Bernies to miss as they had kicked at 88
per cent during their seven-goal third term. Mitchell kicked two
of three goals in the first term and took the Bernies out to a three-goal
lead with the breeze.
Xavs
got the same lead in the second quarter and the Bernies twice in the
third term.
It
wasn’t until Dan Richardson kicked his fifth goal, his best in the grand
final run, at the 21-minute mark of the final term that buffer was broken
for the first time in the match.
Richardson’s
centre-half forward Adam Jones had a terrific tussle with Tait Wilkinson.
Three
first half goals from near the arc gave Jones, with 11 marks, the nod
for his first Jock Nelson Medal for the best on ground.
Other
eye-catching performances: For Xavs: Ben Cranage - he had 41 possessions
in last year’s finale and he picked up 37 last Sunday including two
goals across the centre; Lachie Ford, 26 possessions, was the linkman
for all quarters; Xavs’ John Bowen, 24 possessions, came to the fore
during the second half. For Bernies: Ben Jordan - recruited from B Section
at North Old Boys Jordan kicked their only goal in the last quarter
at the 27-minute mark and it was unusually in slow motion for this pocket
dynamo; Danny Byrne - his sprints from the circle to the arc then to
finish with five goals were inspirational ;
Against
any other side in the VAFA, the Danny Byrne goals early in the third
term would have been knockout strikes. They were reinforced by Bernard
goals to Chris Davis, Merrington and McKeon to give the minor premiers
a 14-point lead at the 16-minute mark.
Then
again, there has only been one other team like the Old Xaverians and
that was University Blacks.
They
too won six consecutive A Section premierships except their run was
interrupted by World War II (1938 - 1949).
In
13 months time we should see a new king of Amateur Football.
For
half a century it’s been Uni Blacks.
In
September 2001 Xavs should win an unprecedented seventh flag in a row
with this group that is to be bolstered by the Xaverian football factory.
Coaches’
comments
Xavs’
Tim O’Shaughnessy: “We weren’t sure how the two-week break would
affect St Bernards. Because we had been there and St Bernards hadn’t
maybe it would give them more time to think about it.”
Bernies’
Garry Foulds: “We weren’t concerned about trying to beat Xavs for
the fourth time this season (also for a fifth time in a row). Xavs had
beaten us 14 times in a row prior to our win last year.”
Twice
O’Shaughnessy said at the presentation: “Nothing like this will ever
happen again”. On this O’Shaughnessy meant: “I couldn’t see six
in a row being won again, certainly not in my life time (the record
has stood for 51 years). This doesn’t mean we can’t win seven next year”.
Foulds:
“Xavs ran well in the last quarter. We were taken by surprise. Xavs
have a lot of self belief that has been built up over a number of years.”
Glut
of players
The
Bernies left out regular senior players Michael Bretherton, Nick Smith
and Craig Osborne while Ben Loughlin came out of the Austin Repatriation
Hospital for the grand final with an infected leg.
The
Xaverians who have done the job
Fifty-four
men have played for Xaverians during their six premierships.
Michael
Blood, John Bowen, Andrew Dillon and Dan Richardson have played in all
six.
Paul
Tuddenham (1995), Craig Kelly (1999), Jason Taylor (1998), Ben Buckley
(1995) and Andy Gowers (2000) have all played in premierships after
AFL careers and Daniel Donati (1996) at Richmond, Anthony McDonald (1995),
James McDonald (1996) and Andrew Leoncelli (1995) at Melbourne have
gone on to AFL careers after playing in Xaverian flags (indicated in
brackets).
Nick
Perrett, Luke Gollant, Jason Gollant and Shane Byrne were all members
of the Bernies’ 1991 B Section premiership which defeated Xavs 5.5-35
to 4.3-27 who played last Sunday.
Xaverians
have now made the past eight A Section final series and the club has
won 19 of 24 flags on offer for the seniors, reserves, under 19s and
Club 18 over the past six years.
