WRFL 2018: West Footscray scores massive upset eight-point win over North Footscray
West Footscray experienced a red-letter day on Saturday, delivering a win coach Shane Lucas declared the best of his tenure “by miles”.
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IT WAS a red-letter day for West Footscray.
After finishing bottom of the ladder in consecutive seasons, the Western Region Football League Division 2 club toppled reigning premier North Footscray in a monumental upset on Saturday.
The Roosters prevailed by eight points, 14.15 (99) to 14.7 (91), leaving them in seventh spot with a 3-8 record and two games clear of last-placed Albanvale.
Coach Shane Lucas, who is in his third season at the helm, unsurprisingly declared it the best win of his tenure “by miles”.
Victories have been hard to come by for West Footscray since it qualified for consecutive grand finals in 2014 and ’15.
The club has won just three games in the past two seasons, but its improvement this year suggests it is on the right track.
“I think they (the players) were a little bit stunned themselves, just how good they can play if they all play together,” Lucas said.
“We’ve spoken about it and discussed it during the week … but the great thing was our actions matched our words.
“They (North Footscray) probably had a couple of their players out. They lost a couple (during the match), but it’s who you play on the day and the boys found out a little bit about themselves, if anything.”
Making the success all the more meritorious was the fact the Devils erased a 24-point halftime deficit with a blistering seven-goal-to-two third term.
Most would have expected them to finish the job after they established a four-point lead at three-quarter-time, but West Footscray kicked 2.7 to 1.1 in the last half-hour to topple its more-fancied opponent.
“The boys just played footy for each other,” Lucas said.
“For the last two and a half years, I probably would have just given up halfway through the third quarter, just thinking ‘oh well, that’s done’.
“But it was good for the group because they stopped what North Footscray was doing, we changed it around and then got a couple of late goals in the third quarter which kept us alive.”
Lucas heaped praise on skipper Kane Liossis, who was dominant in the middle for the winning side.
Leroy Hollingsworth, Marcus Crook and Lachlan Crook also starred, while Hayden Bray bagged five goals and Darcy McCallum four.
As Lucas noted, West Footscray’s challenge is to back up its latest performance in winnable clashes against Parkside and Manor Lakes in the next fortnight.
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