Old Paradians on the rise after disappointing 2013 season in VAFA

OLD Paradians players could have started planning their 2013 end-of-season celebrations last July. In the space of 12 months, the club’s fortunes have changed immensley.

TWELVE months can make a big difference in the mindset of a football club.

This time last year, Victorian Amateur Football Association finals were a dream for Old Paradians.

With five wins from 14 matches, Paradians could start planning their 2013 end-of-season celebrations in July.

But this year is a vastly different story, with the Division 2 side firmly in the frame to finish inside the top four with one month remaining in the campaign.

Old Paradians sits in fourth spot, one game clear of fifth-placed St John’s.

“The end result of the season made it look as though we had a reasonable year but we had a really poor year last year. We really had to come back to what was working for us toward the end of the year,” Paradians coach David Boundy said.

“It’s important to finish with momentum which we did, but last year was a really disappointing year.

“The guys from last year were annoyed and upset and really wanted to turn things around and make sure we got off to a good start which we were able to do.”

Kew remains the team to beat, while St Mary’s Salesian appears certain to play finals again.

Boundy said his side’s best football could push the division’s top-two teams.

“Results of our previous games against those sides probably wouldn’t suggest that,” he said.

“Both sides have given us a little bit of a touch up, I guess you could say.

“We learned a lot from those games, which I think is the important thing and certainly learned a lot about how they play and how they like to move the ball around.”

Paradians will be favoured to beat Elsternwick this weekend, before facing St John’s at Garvey Oval.

Its final two matches are against Monash Gryphons and Kew.

Boundy said Brendan Moylan, Michael Boundy, Dan McKenna and Steven Rehlicki had been among his side’s strongest performers over the past month.

Paradians tackled Old Eltham Collegians in a bumper clash on Saturday and went down by six points, 5.12 (42) to 5.6 (36).

Moylan and Sean Money were the standouts in the defeat.