West Preston-Lakeside claims miracle NFL Division 1 premiership
Started the season 0-6, made Northern Football League history just making finals, West Preston-Lakeside’s fairytale season reached its climax with a second straight premiership against Greensborough.
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It will go down as one of the greatest premiership wins in Northern Football League history. Perhaps local footy history.
Obituaries were being written for West Preston-Lakeside’s season when the reigning premier was 0-6, fast-forward 17 weeks and the Roosters are back-to-back premiers.
Facing the might of Greensborough — the minor premier had lost just once in 2019 — West Preston-Lakeside produced a stunning finish to a historic season, claiming a 12-point victory.
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It’s the first time a NFL Division 1 club has won consecutive premierships since Heidelberg’s four-peat of 2006-09.
It’s the magical season the writers of Hollywood dream about.
After their horror start, the Roosters made history just making finals and proceeded to knock off Montmorency (fifth), Heidelberg (second), North Heidelberg (third) and the Borough.
“I’m still in a little bit of shock,” West Preston-Lakeside coach Rob Maiorana said.
“To win one is very hard in this day and age with the evenness of the competition, the salary cap, the points system. It hasn’t been done in this league for 10 years.
“It’s an unbelievable accomplishment and the storyline of where we’ve come from makes it even more special.
“It’s a huge effort to come up week after week after week and beat these quality sides, just a monumental effort.”
Luke Lirosi was one of many heroes, his three goals enough to claim best-on-ground honours in the 8.5 (53) to 6.5 (41) triumph at Preston City Oval.
Ahmed Saad kicked two goals in an absorbing contest with Nick Riddle, Matt Harman was enormous in the ruck without Mark Kovacevic, while Matt Signorello returned from VFL duties to help combat Tom Bell, Charlie Molyneux and Chris Clark.
Jackson Clarke, Garrett McDonagh kept the Roosters in the game when Greensborough were firing early and after serving a two-week ban Ozgur Uysal was huge with the game on the line in the final quarter.
Rosbrook Medallist Tom Bell was enormous around the stoppages for Greensborough and kicked two goals, while Jack Johnston, Michael Croxford, John Desmond and Adrian Cataldo were strong contributors.
The Roosters kicked the first two goals of the game before the Borough took complete control, kicking five unanswered goals to take an 18-point lead early in the second term.
However, the game quickly changed from a free-flowing contest to a tough, contested rolling maul that wouldn’t have been out of place at the Rugby World Cup in Japan.
It suited West Preston-Lakeside perfectly.
With the scores level at three-quarter-time, Maiorana’s men kicked the first three goals and Greensborough were left stunned as the siren sounded.
“I don’t know if they were driving that or us but the goals dried up, for a little while it was a pretty boring game, and it kept us in the game,” Maiorana said.
“They fought their bums off each and every contest, the tackling and pressure was unbelievable and Greensborough couldn’t find any time or space.”
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