By Hayley Wildes
Springvale Districts had a point to prove. Having been relegated to Division 3 of the Southern Football League this season, the Dees were on a mission to prove their worth and put their best foot forward to claim the flag.
“We would’ve loved to stay up; we tried everything as a club to stay in Division 2, but we had sort of lick our wounds and go back,” Springvale Districts coach Kris Thompson said.
“We were always really confident and even from the start of preseason we set our goal to win two premierships (senior and reserve grade) and I was happy for us to talk about that throughout the year; that it’s okay for that to be our goal.
“But if you’re going to do that and talk about it, you’ve got to do everything to back it up with no excuses throughout the year and no cheating each other. I can honestly say we did that.”
After claiming the minor premiership with an impressive 16-2 record, the Dees entered the finals as favourites and sent a message in their semi final against the second-placed Hampton Park Redbacks.
Having beaten the Redbacks by 19 points, they were through to the big dance and after Endeavour Hills bounced Hampton Park out of finals in straight sets, the Dees would meet the Falcons in the decider.
Holding onto a seven-point lead at half time, the Dees powered home in a rampant second half that was fitting of their dominant season.
A six-goal to one second half saw the Dees claim premiership glory.
“We probably should’ve had them at half time, but our inaccurate kicking in front of goal cost us,” Thompson said.
“I just knew at same stage we were going to break them, but to their credit, Endeavour Hills didn’t go away and they’re a really good side.”
Led by captain Todd Wills – who was awarded the best on ground medal – the Dees had players all over the ground stand up in the biggest game of the year. The likes of Thomas Wilkinson, Matthew Thompson, Ben Stacey and Nathan Brown all fought tooth and nail to help their side take home the cup.
For the club and coach it was a season of reward after a tough 2017.
Thompson took over head coaching duties in the most trying of circumstances, but all along it was about the club – not himself.
“I played about 10 years of senior football at Springvale Districts, then I went to Frankston where I was an assistant with the VFL for a couple of years and then I came back as a playing assistant,” he said.
Having returned as a playing assistant, Thompson was quickly thrust into the deep end when the head coach quit mid-way through the 2017 season. To make matters even more complicated, Thompson took over the coaching reins having just broken his leg.
“In Round 8 I broke my leg on the Saturday when I was a playing assistant and on the Tuesday the coach resigned,” Thompson said.
“So three days after breaking my leg, I was announced as senior coach. I had surgery on the Friday and then on the Saturday I coached my first game and we won.
“I had to move on really quickly – it was a real challenge taking the team over mid-week, but it was good and we ended up winning six games.”
Despite winning six games for the season, due to the re-structure within the league, the Dees were relegated.
Whilst the club fought against being relegated, their enthusiasm wasn’t dented in the slightest. With a committed club and playing group, 2018 was never going to be a wasted season for Springvale Districts.
“We re-signed every senior player from last year and then we brought in roughly nine top-end quality players – we targeted certain people and we really strengthened our list,” Thompson said.
“Going down a division with the same team we had before and adding in nine quality players, we knew we were going to be a good side.”
Having taken all before them in Division 3, the Springvale Districts will return to Division 2 in 2018 with their sights set on taking it right up to those in the higher division.
“We re-signed 26 senior players before the grand final and I re-signed in grand final week, so next year we’re going in with the same list back into division 2,” Thompson said.
“I’ve been around the club for a long time and I’ve never seen a group this close. They’re all still young – most are between 25 to 28 years old – so they’re at the right stage in their careers to go back into Division 2 and a lot of these guys have played Division 2 before, so they know the standard.
“With keeping the same side it’s another year under the belt of learning the game plan and all our structures and I think we’ve just about mastered that now, so we’re ready to go back into division 2 and give it a crack.”
With a Division 3 premiership cup in their trophy cabinet, Springvale Districts won’t be content on just making up the numbers in 2019.
