St Mary’s seal a return to the NTFL finals with a hard fought win over Southern Districts

FIRST year St Mary’s coach Anthony Vallejo stopped short of declaring next Sunday’s clash with reigning NTFL premier Nightcliff a grand final preview

First year coach Anthony Vallejo has lifted St Mary’s back into the NTFL finals. Picture: GLENN CAMPBELL

FIRST year St Mary’s coach Anthony Vallejo stopped short of declaring next Sunday’s clash with reigning NTFL premier Nightcliff a grand final preview.

But he was quick to praise his players after a tough workout against fellow finalists Southern Districts produced a 13-point win and a firm hold on the double chance.

“I think we can say we’re in the finals after a lot of hard work over the last couple of months to get us there,’’ Vallejo said.

“But it’s definitely not the end result in what we are aiming for. While we’ve publicly said we’re not expecting too much, I expected us to play finals footy this season and hopefully go a long way in the process.’’

St Mary’s fielded eight players from their under-18 side against Districts to cover the absence of senior players Jack Geary, Jarrad Waite, Anthony Wilson, Nate Paredes, Kieran Parnell and Ryan Smith.

Vallejo said the club’s policy of bringing in young players for their enthusiasm, leg speed and harassment around the footy was producing several positives.

“Around those young blokes Shannon Rioli played one of his better games in a long time, Jake Long stood up across half back and Shaun Edwards and Jackson Paine were very good through the middle,’’ Vallejo added.

“So we’re looking forward to playing Nightcliff at Nightcliff, they’ve been the benchmarks with Districts for the last few years and even if we got one over them earlier in the season we know they’ll come hard at us this week.’’

Vallejo was rapt with his side’s intensity against a Districts side that came to play.

“It was similar to finals footy with low scoring, plenty of hard contests around the ball and some good individual efforts,’’ he said.

“Now we’ve got to get our side organised, including what Ben (Rioli) is doing with pre-season at South Fremantle so we can qualify him for the finals.

“I would love to have three Riolis and four Longs running around in the finals for us.’’