‘This means an enormous amount to the football club but we wanted to write our own history’: Glenelg coach Mark Stone lauds drought-breaking grand final win
Premiership-winning Glenelg coach Mark Stone has praised the loyal fans for sticking by the success-starved club as he and his Tigers focused on creating their own slice of history.
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Triumphant Glenelg coach Mark Stone paid tribute to the club’s loyal band of supporters while declaring his players were on a mission to create their own history against Port Adelaide in the SANFL grand final.
While the Tigers broke a 33-year flag drought and beat the Magpies in a grand final for just the second time and first since 1934, Stone said his men were focused on starting their own era of success.
“This means an enormous amount to the football club but we wanted to write our own history,’’ he said after leading Glenelg, which hadn’t played finals since 2011, to a flag in just his second year in charge.
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“It is really special to me because I am the fortunate one (coach) that got to break the drought and bring the cup back (to Tigerland).
“It’s going to be an amazing time over the next week for everyone involved with the club, those people with black and yellow in their blood.
“We understand what is behind us but it is something we can’t change. All we can create was the present and the future.
“History is there and I am aware of the rivalry (with Port) and all that but this is our own little period.
“So we just set about ticking off some boxes this year - beating Central at Elizabeth, that had been 10 years, beating Eagles at Woodville had been 10 years, winning the minor premiership had been 11 years and it had been 11 years since we’d won a final.
“So we just kept ticking boxes and taking the next step and this was another step.’’
Stone described winning the flag - just Glenelg’s fifth from 18 grand finals - as “surreal’’.
He is contracted to the Tigers for next season but was non-committal about his future.
Having been an assistant coach at West Coast, Sydney and Fremantle, he could be offered another AFL job.
“I am contracted but who knows, my main priority is to support my family,’’ Stone said.
“At the moment I’m just thrilled to be a part of this wonderful football club that has given me an opportunity to coach, the first job I’ve had in my own right for a long time.
“I strive to be the best, so you have aspirations to be in the best competition there is, but right now I’m just going to enjoy the party.’’
Captain Chris Curran, 28, won’t be at the club next season after confirming he will spend next year in Renmark in the Riverland on placement with his medical studies.
He did not rule out returning to the Bay in 2021 and said he was delighted to have departed with a flag.
“It’s just incredible to win a premiership with this group, it’s the tightest group of players I’ve ever played with,’’ Curran said.