GFL preliminary final: Connor Giddings kicks goal after the siren to win game for Leopold against Newtown & Chilwell
Leopold skipper Marcus Thompson is happy to buy into the ‘underdog’ tag, but believes going the long way round to the grand final is an advantage. Find out why.
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LEOPOLD skipper Marcus Thompson says the momentum of successive finals victories has fuelled belief that his side can cause a boilover in Saturday’s GFL Grand Final.
Storming into the decider on the back of three cutthroat wins, the Lions enter the clash against minor premier St Mary’s as rank underdogs.
But Thompson said the tough finals campaign, which comprised upset wins over St Joseph’s, Colac and Newtown & Chilwell, was the perfect preparation for his side.
“Footballers are creatures of habit and we like to play week in and week out,” he said.
“It keeps it as normal as possible by training on Tuesdays and Thursdays before a game on Saturday, so while we’ve played more games in the last month we’re also carrying that momentum in.
“In saying that, St Mary’s have been a great side for a long time and they’ve been there so many times before, they’ll know exactly what they need to do to prepare so it’s not as if we’re coming in with all the advantages.”
Thompson said the Lions had embraced the ‘underdog’ tag throughout the season.
“Not many people outside of this group would’ve thought we’d be in this position and playing for a premiership, but we’re doing something really special,” he said.
“We’re playing for each other and doing whatever we can to be successful.
“It’s been a bit of a habit of ours, being slow starters, but we’ve always backed ourselves to fight back into it after half time.
“We’ve got the fitness, we’ve trained for different scenarios during the season so we know how to react when we’re trailing late in a game.
“Even though we were down and the ball was down back with no time really left, we knew that transition would work if we could get the ball moving.”
The Lions survived to fight another day after a jaw-dropping finish to the preliminary final, with forward Conor Giddings booted a goal after the siren to sink the Eagles.
Thompson conceded post game that he was resigned to the fact his side would not make the grand final when the ball was trapped deep in Leopold’s defence in the dying seconds.
Newtown & Chilwell led the game by a solitary point and 32 minutes had already been played in a tense final quarter.
“Newtown is an unbelievably good side, when they were on top those thoughts start creeping in, that maybe they’re going to run over the top of us,” Thompson said.
“You just think, ‘maybe they are just too good and that wind is going to help them get over the line’, but we just really wanted this and we willed it to happen.”
STATS: Eagle’s big day not enough for grand final chance
Leopold coach Garry Hocking said he “would have put my house on” Connor Giddings kicking truly after the siren to send the Lions into the grand final.
The Lions trailed late in the game before a 50-metre penalty and a pack mark gave the forward a chance to snatch the lead off Newtown & Chilwell after the siren.
Hocking said he hoped Giddings remembered some goal-kicking advice he had passed on earlier in the year.
“Malcolm Blight told me to never aim outside of the goals when there’s a wind, just kick inside the post and kick it harder,” he said.
“It will hold its line better if you do that, I just hoped as he lined up that he had Malcolm’s thoughts in the back of his head.
“He kept it just inside the post, and firm enough for it to keep its line, so it was good he listened.”
Leopold held a 13-point lead at the final break, but the Eagles used the wind to secure a seven-point lead with about seven minutes left in the contest.
Hocking said he feared the three-quarter-time buffer would not be enough, but his side had experienced plenty of tough final-term wins this season.
“I still would like to start faster in games and put a score on the board, but the resilience and grit that we show when we’re behind has taught the boys that we’re in it, even when we’re behind,” he said.
“The game will always have resistance because you’re not the only team out there, so we’ve learned to stay invested and never give up.
“That doesn’t mean I want to play games from behind, but the boys know how to win games in positions that aren’t favourable, which is a really good thing to know.
“There were a number of things that had to go our way, if you run that game again 10 times, nine times out of 10 they probably kill the ball or mark the ball.
“You ride your luck, we were beaten on the siren against Grovedale earlier in the year … so maybe it’s just the footy gods squaring it up.”
Goal after siren heroics earn Lions grand final berth
Connor Giddings lived out every footballer’s dream, with the key forward kicking a goal after the siren to put Leopold into the GFL grand final.
The Lions trailed by one point with just seconds remaining with the ball pinned inside their defensive end, when a 50-metre penalty and a long kick into the wind gave Giddings a chance to leap at the ball.
The forward sailed across the pack and claimed a strong mark, with the siren sounding shortly after he got to his feet.
Giddings said he did not hear the siren when he was walking back to his mark.
“I was on the wing when the 50-metre was paid, so I had to get moving to get into the forward line to compete,” he said.
“I managed to get a pretty clear run at the ball and just jumped up and happened to grab it.
“The umpire told me the siren had gone, I didn’t hear it at first because the crowd was going crazy.
“I was pretty nervous going in for the shot, but managed to slot it and the rest is history.”
Giddings’ second goal for the day put Leopold on 10.7 (67), just five points ahead of Newtown & Chilwell’s 8.14 (62).
While the forward was nervous about his kick to put his team into a grand final, his captain Marcus Thompson said the kick was “never in doubt”.
“He’s an incredible young player, he’s one of those guys that when he plays with confidence, he’s so special to watch,” he said.
“It’s probably taken him the whole season to get himself confident in his ability, so to now see him clunking marks like that is awesome for him and reward for his hard work this year.
“I was so confident in watching him go back to take that set shot, I don’t know what it was but I never thought he was a chance to miss it.”
Leopold will play minor premiers St Mary’s next week in the grand final, with the Lions making the big dance the hard way after finishing fourth on the ladder.
Giddings said the side was more than just a fourth-placed team on the ladder, and the Lions would take it right up against the Saints.
“I can’t really believe we’re at the end of the season now, it’s come around so quickly,” he said.
“We never thought about how we were doing it the hard way, but now that we’re here we’ll put in the work this week and see what we can do.”
‘Utter devastation’: Controversial penalty costs Eagles preliminary final win
As his players laid on the turf following a goal-after-the-siren loss in a preliminary final, Newtown & Chilwell coach Damien McMahon could only feel one thing.
“It was utter devastation,” he said.
“We played some really good footy, had some great control of the game, and it shows that it’s never over until it’s over.
“We knew there was about 30 seconds to go at the stoppage deep in our forward line, if we could hold it in for 10 more seconds it wouldn’t have mattered what happened after that.
“Obviously we gave away a 50 (metre penalty), it felt like 100 metres, then they took a hard mark and kicked truly.
“It’s about as hard a loss as you can take considering how well we had played and the season we had, and the position we put ourselves in.”
The Eagles held a one-point buffer and had thwarted Leopold’s scoring attempts late in the final quarter, but a late pack mark from forward Connor Giddings gave him the chance to kick a goal after the siren and swing the advantage to the Lions.
Giddings kicked truly, sending Leopold to a grand final with a 10.7 (67) to 8.14 (62) victory.
People at the game questioned the length of the 50m penalty, with K rock commentator Jason Doherty saying on-air that “it was a good 50, where he’s gone to, he’s nearly at centre-half-forward”.
But McMahon refused to blame the length of the penalty, and said plenty had to go right for Leopold to get that goal.
“There’s nothing you can do about it, these things happen in games of football, it’s not like there’s a review and you can change it,” he said.
“If we didn’t give the 50-metre away in the first place we win the game, if he didn’t mark it we still win the game, and if we didn’t give the free kick away we still win the game.
“You can go all the way back to some missed shots in the last quarter as well, so you can’t pin it on one particular thing, there were lots of moments that could’ve stitched the game up for us.”
“That’s footy, it’s a tough game, you have your highs and your lows and it was a massive low.”
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Originally published as GFL preliminary final: Connor Giddings kicks goal after the siren to win game for Leopold against Newtown & Chilwell
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