EFNL 2023: Vermont through to Premier Division grand final

The jungle drums were beating with doubt in the wake of a 91-point drubbing in Round 3. Now Vermont is one win from a third flag in five years, after missing the finals last season. What a rise.

“We’re not resting on our laurels, let me tell you,” Vermont president Danny Ross declared amid his club missing the finals for the first time in more than a decade last season.

Twelve months on, and Vermont will be shooting for a third senior cup in five years this Saturday when it meets Rowville in the Eastern league Premier Division grand final.

The Eagles punched their ticket to the decider with a 13.7 (85) to 8.7 (55) victory over Doncaster East in the weekend’s preliminary final, as captain Connor McCafferty starred alongside ex-AFL ‘Roo Daniel Neilson, who finished with five goals.

Daniel Nielson (middle) kicked five goals on Saturday. Picture: Josh Chadwick

It’s been some climb back for Vermont, which finished ninth on the ladder with a 6-12 record last year, outside of the finals for the first time since 2011.

The win-loss ledger spelt unfamiliar territory for the suburban powerhouse, with the club equalling its longest-ever losing streak of eight matches.

Ross paid tribute to senior coach Adam Parker, “rapt with how he’s got the whole group together” in the club’s slingshot to the top of the table this year.

“I’m just really proud of the way the coaching group have got the players together this year – we’ve tipped more money into coaching and we have a physio now, full-time,” Ross said.

“The coaches have really hit it off with the players, and we feel we’ve developed our younger players better than we had been.”

Frankston-listed ruckman Nicholas Minchin in action for Vermont on Saturday. Picture: Josh Chadwick

Suffering a 91-point drubbing at the hands of East Ringwood in Round 3 this season, Ross said he could only shake his head at the external noise surrounding his club at the time.

A 15-3 finish to the season followed.

“If you go back to Round 3 … to hear some of the stuff go on after that game, it was like, we were ‘going to get relegated’, ‘what’s going on down there?’ … I had people ringing me,” he said.

“But since then, Round 4, we beat Balwyn in Robbie (Ross’) 200th, and that night we got together as a club and it’s just snowballed into this Saturday.”

The silverware stretches wall-to-wall in the club’s trophy room housing 23 senior cups, including a league-record 21 in the Eastern era dating back to 1962.

It has featured in four of the past five grand finals, saluting in 2018 and ’19.

Tim Johnson is the last remaining player from the club’s 2009 triumph. Picture: Josh Chadwick

“We’ve only got five players that played in our 2019 grand final … and we’ve only got nine players at the club who were there in 2019,” Ross said.

“We’ve had a huge turnover of players and we’ve sort of had to build again – our average age is only 22, 23.

“We’re excited and you never know what can happen.”

A Hawks outfit hunting their first top-flight flag awaits, Ross remarking there’s great respect for this Saturday’s adversary which pipped the Eagles by a point in the semi-final.

“It’s been a huge effort by our club and we respect Rowville – they beat us hands-down last time so we’ve got to come up with something a little bit different.”