St Joseph’s coach Ron Watt says his young players must learn lessons from a disappointing finals campaign

St Joseph’s coach Ron Watt has revealed the key area where his side fell away in as the Joeys went out in straight sets after a historic 18-0 regular season.

South Barwon’s Jackson Carmody is met heavily by St Josephs’ Angus Humphrey. Picture: Mark Wilson

A disappointing 30-point loss to South Barwon in a GFNL preliminary final after a historic regular season was a brutal “reality check” for St Joseph’s, senior coach Ron Watt says.

The Joeys went out in straight sets after an 18-0 home and away campaign, losing a qualifying final to Leopold by four straight kicks and then Saturday’s error-riddled display at West Oval.

Post-match, Watt said it was important his charges learned its lesson from a nightmare fortnight.

“We’ve got to celebrate (that) we had a good home and away season, it also gives us a bit of perspective on the level we have to go to win big games,” Watt said.

“We’d consider this year a failure if we don’t learn from it and grow next year, we need to use it as a foundation stone.”

When asked how the Joeys went away from what had been a successful method during 18 regular games, he said “our ball movement was terrible the last two weeks”.

Scoring was difficult for both sides on Saturday due to the tricky wind conditions before the Swans booted three final term goals in succession to ice the game.

“You can use whatever excuses you want, but the fact is we weren’t prepared to take the game on and use the ball carefully,” he said.

South Barwon’s Matthew Caldow celebrates a goal with Chris Hughes. Picture: Mark Wilson

“We made some bad decisions ... I think some people got consumed with the wind, and their decision making became fragmented because of that.

“We’ve got grow and make sure that doesn’t happen again.”

He thought the experience would be character-building in the end, teaching the importance of having “resolve” in big games.

“For half our team, this was the first time they’d played in finals at senior level, that will be an experience they’ve got under their belt now,” he said.

“There are some areas of improvement.

“For our younger players it’s a reality check of what they’re good at and what they’re not so good at, it will give us something to work at in the off-season to make some of those improvements.”

Meanwhile, Watt said he was already feeling inspired about what 2025 might bring.

“I’m thinking about it already,” he said.

“We’ve been thinking about it the last couple of weeks.

“We’ve got recruiting to do, setting the program up, but we’ve still got to acknowledge what this year was about.

“It’s not all doom and gloom, we think we let a good opportunity slip.

“They asked me if I wanted to do (coach again in 2025) and I said yes, it was that long (to ponder).”

Originally published as St Joseph’s coach Ron Watt says his young players must learn lessons from a disappointing finals campaign