VFL grand final: Box Hill Hawks premiership completes ‘massive finals campaign’

CASEY coach Jade Rawlings acknowledges Box Hill Hawks’ ‘massive finals campaign’ after their stunning grand final victory at Etihad Stadium.

JUST as it was the most stirring of victories for the Box Hill Hawks, it was the toughest of losses for the Casey Demons.

Grand final defeats are always hard to take, and the fact that the Demons led for all but 15 minutes of Sunday’s decider at Etihad Stadium made it the more painful.

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They started superbly, kicking the first four goals. But after half time the Hawks lifted on every line, their midfielders profiting from the deft and dominant hand of ruckman Marc Pittonet.

Dominant ruckman Marc Pittonet marks for Box Hill Hawks.

In the 13-minute mark of the last quarter Pittonet tapped the ball to Kieran Lovell, who streamed forward and nailed a goal.

It put the Hawks in front for the first time, and that is where they stayed.

Diminutive Dylan Moore received a free kick for high contact and carefully guided the ball through from 20m for his third goal. Box Hill was now 10 points up. It remained the winning the margin, 10.12 (72) to 8.14 (62).

Moore’s second goal was just as crucial to his team’s cause. He steered it through after the halftime siren to send Box Hill into the break 17 points down but in better heart and with greater hope.

The words “Pittonet hit-out’’ were heard often from the statisticians in the press box. Although the big fellow didn’t win the Norm Goss Medal as best-afield — it went to teammate David Mirra — he had a profound influence on the match.

Casey opposed him with the “hybrid’’ set-up of Tim Smith, Cam Pedersen and Mykelti Lefau — all key position players, but not genuine ruckmen — but could not contain him.

Having given up the lead, the Demons certainly weren’t giving up on the grand final.

Disappointed Casey Demons players after the grand final.

They continued to scrap it out in the last 15 minutes, but key moments went against them.

Hawk Anthony Brolic smothered a Mitch White kick destined to send Casey deep into attack, and a Bernie Vince shot rattled the post.

Perhaps Chris Jones best demonstrated the Box Hill rally. He was virtually unseen in the first three quarters, but early in the final term he threw himself on to the ball after a marking contest and fished it out to his captain Andrew Moore, who kicked the goal Jones’s desperation deserved.

Box Hill might have conceded the first four goals of the grand final, but it booted six of the last eight to complete one of the great finals campaign.

The Hawks were sixth on the ladder after the home-and-away rounds. They were within one second of losing their first final — Oliver Hanrahan poked through a goal to send the elimination final into extra time against Port Melbourne and the Hawks eventually prevailed by 11 points — defeated Geelong by 29 points in the semi-final and nosed out Williamstown by one point in the preliminary final, a set-shot from Towner Jaylon Thorpe narrowly missing in the shadows of the siren.

Casey coach Jade Rawlings acknowledged the Hawks’ rousing run through September, calling it a “massive finals campaign’’.

The retiring Bernie Vince waves to the crowd as he walks off Etihad Stadium.

He said “unbridled disappointment’’ was his overwhelming emotion after the grand final.

“You don’t get these opportunities very often. We put ourselves in a winning position and weren’t able to maximise it when we had it,’’ Rawlings said.

“Gave them a sniff, and their class and team unity prevailed over the course of the second half. We were able to keep them at arm’s length in the third quarter. We just stopped playing to the level we’d been playing at. They ran over the top of us late. They looked like they were going to score every time they went forward.’’

Asked about Pittonet, Rawlings said that at some stage Casey’s lack of a ruckman was going to hurt it.

“Every week you go in worrying that a ruckman could get hold of you. I thought our guys were admirable — certainly Lefau in the first half and I thought Smith was reasonable — but in the end premiership teams always have a good ruckman, don’t they?

“We tried and we improvised and in the end he (Pittonet) had a big influence on the game.’’

Setting aside the grand final defeat, Rawlings said the Demons had a successful season, strengthening the alignment with Melbourne and exposing a lot of VFL-listed players.