EFNL Division 3 2024: Surrey Park wins second consecutive flag to climb two divisions in two years
It toppled a juggernaut in one of the most dramatic finishes to an Eastern league grand final this century, claiming the Division 3 flag – and a second-straight crown. We take a deep dive into the making of one of the game’s great success stories.
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TWELVE months ago it shook the shackles of the ‘suburban battler’ tag.
Twelve months later, it has lifted a second consecutive premiership cup.
Surrey Park is basking in the spoils of arguably one of the greatest Eastern league grand final victories this century.
Rattling home from a seemingly insurmountable 16-point deficit 15 minutes into the final quarter, the Panthers broke Donvale hearts with a 12.12 (84) to 12.10 (82) upset in the Division 3 decider on Saturday.
Surrey Park – which won its first Eastern league premiership last year in Division 4 and was promoted to Division 3 this season – was on its knees as a club little over a decade ago, weathering a 67-game losing streak from 2008-13 while collecting five consecutive wooden spoons.
But it had little trouble in its move up a flight this year, finishing the home-and-away season in second with a 15-3 record on the way to denying Donvale a second-straight Division 3 crown.
On the ropes in Saturday’s final quarter, Surrey Park playing-coach James Kenworthy kicked truly with 12 minutes expired to cut the margin to 10 points before Donvale answered quickly to restore what looked a matchwinning buffer.
But just as the club had simply refused to give in so many times across the past 15 years, so too would Kenworthy’s men remain unwavering. Goals inside a minute of each other from Jasper Mundy and Lachlan Summers brought the Panthers back again.
Five points down with 21 minutes ticked over, boom mid-season recruit Jack Mahon pickpocketed the Sherrin from several to bounce through the winner from 30m out after trailing virtually all day.
It would be enough.
Kenworthy would stand on the premiership dais a second time in 12 months.
“It was probably one of the most nervous kicks I’ve had in my career,” Kenworthy said of his goal.
“With our group, we’ve got so much believe in when we play our best footy, we can beat anyone.
“Even though we were 16 points down halfway through that last quarter, it didn’t feel like that at the time – we just knew we had to keep going and not stop.
“Eventually things turned our way … it was an absolutely unreal experience.”
The dying moments would be replayed tirelessly through the Surrey Park rooms swelling with supporters on Saturday night.
Surrey Park president Rohan Sutherland admits he’s seen the ending a few times, just as he’d seen his club’s belief grow by the week this season.
“As you can imagine, I might’ve watched it a couple of times now,” Sutherland said.
“Last year was obviously the breaking of a drought and something we felt as a club was long overdue.
“We knew nothing about Division 3, and it had been a while since we had played footy against any of them.
“We spent half the season finding our feet and building confidence that we were able to compete in the division and once we got to the midpoint of the season, we knew we were good enough to contend, but you still don’t have any expectation at that point.
“We just kept building belief.”
Adding to an ever-growing collection of medals was young star Tom Smith, named best-afield in the grand final for a second consecutive year.
The 2022 Division 4 league best and fairest turned on an unrelenting midfield display.
Sutherland says he’s “our Dusty”, in reference to Richmond champion Dustin Martin.
Kenworthy would find it hard to disagree.
“He stands up when he’s needed most – last year in the grand final he kicked four, and this one he’s come into the midfield and taken the game by the scruff of the neck,” Kenworthy said.
“He’s such a great man – a supreme talent, he’s so agile, quick and knows how to find the footy. It’s amazing when you’re out there and you see him – he gets the footy, and can dodge and weave through multiple people.
“He’s going to have an amazing career.”
Matchwinner Mahon returned to Melbourne from Queensland in the middle of the season after playing with QAFL outfit, Apsley.
The midfield bull was vice-captain at Doncaster when the club competed in Premier Division, and he also had state league stops at Port Melbourne, Northern Blues and Frankston.
Sutherland says he could have played anywhere on his return this year – but he simply couldn’t be split from great mate Kane Henden, a former Surrey Park junior who returned to the club in 2023 and laced up the boots again this year.
The duo played together at Doncaster.
“The world was his oyster returning to Melbourne – he could’ve played anywhere, but he wanted to play with his best mate,” Sutherland said of Mahon.
“The upside for us, in theory, has always been the ability to bring juniors home and Jack’s at the club because Kane Henden came back.
“You can’t say enough about what he’s (Henden) done for this club.”
Henden, who won a best and fairest at Doncaster, helped call the shots from the bench for Kenworthy in last year’s Division 4 decider after returning to the club as an assistant.
He “legitimately thought his career was done” after two ACL injuries according to Sutherland – but found himself lining up in his first senior grand final alongside Mahon on Saturday.
“For them to go all the way and get the ultimate prize after all these years of playing footy, it’s unreal to see,” Kenworthy said.
Sent for a spell on the pine nearing the business end of the final quarter on Saturday after a hot-headed mistake, Mahon simply had to make amends when he returned to the field.
“Just after my goal, he gave away a free kick then 25m penalty, so I sent him off for a couple of minutes just to have a think about it,” Kenworthy said.
And he did.
“He came back on in that last 10 (minutes) as an inside mid and went to work.
“The (matchwinning) snap, I can re-watch it over in my mind again and again, seeing the crowd erupt – I was in the goalsquare at the time, in all honesty, I was in disbelief.”
Kenworthy arrived at Surrey Park as a playing-assistant from top-division club Blackburn in 2022, taking over as coach in a caretaker capacity in the middle of that season.
He would steer the club to the Division 4 decider that year – its first grand final since 1999 – falling agonisingly short to hot-favourite Silvan.
Two years on, and he’s a dual premiership coach – with the club set to embark on Division 2 next season.
“He’s managed to assemble a really good team around him for match-day, he’s galvanised the group and has on-boarded new players,” Sutherland said.
“Everybody understands how we want to play and it’s a consistent message, but he’s got plenty of strings to his bow.
“There are so many guys on the list that are capable of playing a role when he needs them to which is one of the strengths of this group.
“He knows the group so well, and when he asks a player to do something, they do it.
“What more can you ask for on match-day?”
The coach rolled the dice in the wake of season-ending injuries to regular starters Sam Porter and Jack McLaren earlier this year, with under-19 talents Angus Sutherland and Chris Allison cementing senior spots – Sutherland down back, and Allison taking on the No. 1 ruck mantle.
It’s little wonder to the president that Kenworthy’s players – experienced or not – flourished in a higher grade this season, achieving the rare feat of winning a flag immediately after promotion.
And it’s less wonder how they knocked over Donvale, an outfit which rode a 31-game winning streak until recently.
“I saw the work they did in pre-season – I know how hard they worked so they could hit the ground running in Division 3,” Sutherland said.
The pair agrees Surrey Park has become a “destination club”, with Mahon’s signing complemented by a swag of former juniors returning this season alongside Henden.
Jake Summers, who won two flags with Doncaster East, was among them with brother Lachlan.
Meanwhile, 2019 under-19 best and fairest Chris Tsatas also came back – and was one of the best afield from defence on Saturday.
The ‘suburban battler’ tag of yesteryear may be long gone – but the club’s recent success has ironically been its biggest reminder.
Then again, history is never far from the club’s collective mind, with it wearing the old Surrey Hills strip as a clash guernsey on Saturday (Hills merged with East Camberwell to form Surrey Park in 1994), before a quick wardrobe change to the current kit for the presentations.
“This club was in peril 10 and 15 years ago,” Sutherland said, in reference to the Panthers’ 67-game losing streak.
“There were points in time where I think no-one expected it would get through.”
Sutherland paid tribute to his predecessors this time last year as “The blokes that kept this club alive”, but there’s also a gargantuan shout to those who drove it through the Covid years.
He makes special mention to Michael McKenzie (president), Tyson Rattle (treasurer), Andrew Toomey (former president in charge of sponsorship) and Ian Girvan (secretary) who piloted the Panthers across two years of shutdowns.
“Even the committee in more recent times who held it together through the Covid years … it’s that committee that guided us through the Covid years that set us up for this,” Sutherland said.
“We hit the start of 2022 going, for the first time in our life, there’s a little bit of money in the bank.”
Three consecutive grand finals followed, and many reserves and under-19s players of the time would go on to form the basis of a back-to-back premiership-winning force.
In fact, 12 players in Surrey Park’s line-up on Saturday are now dual senior flag winners at the club.
“The 2021 season that finished at the midpoint, our ressies finished on top and were undefeated and our ‘19s were playing Premier footy,” Sutherland said.
“We knew there was something there, it was just a question of if we could hold it together and how quickly we could harness it.”
“It’s that group that is (now) the nucleus of this side – that’s where it’s born from and where we’ve come from … a community club that really means something to the community.”
Even the coach has to pinch himself sometimes.
“You look back two years ago, we were playing Division 4 – and now, all of a sudden, we talk about Surrey Park being a Div. 2 team,” Kenworthy said.
“It’s an amazing turnaround – the whole Surrey Park community is on board and it’s amazing to be a part of.”
EFNL Division 3 Grand Final
Donvale: 5.3, 7.8, 9.9, 12.10 (82)
Surrey Park: 3.3, 5.6, 8.10, 12.12 (84)
Goals
Surrey Park: Tadan Vitacca (3), Jasper Mundy (2), Renan Falahey, Ryan Kennedy, James Kenworthy, Jack Mahon, Sam Naidu, Jake Summers, Lachlan Summers
Best players
Surrey Park: Tom Smith, Jasper Mundy, Christopher Tsatas, Conor Ryan-Simmons, Jack Mahon, George Haynes
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