By Brad Kingsbury
ROC blew its chance to seal a seasonmaking win over Pakenham in the third quarter on Saturday and then watched as the Lions stormed home to win by seven points.
Dubbed as ‘the great escape’ and a ‘steal’ by Pakenham supporters after the game, the truth is that the Lions players’ selfbelief and neversaydie attitude was the catalyst for the victory and coach Michael Holland confirmed that in the postmatch euphoria.
“This group just keeps amazing me,” he said.
“They honestly believe they can win no matter what the situation and I reckon this is one of the closest teams I’ve ever been involved with. We’ve found something this year.”
The Kangaroos came out firing with a fivegoal breeze and piled on six goals to one in an impressive opening term.
Had it not been for the defensive work of Stuart Burridge and Joel Padley, together with the class of assistant coach Lincoln Withers, the margin could have been greater.
The Lions booted four goals with the wind in the second term, but allowed three to its opponent and at half time, Pakenham supporters were nervous with their side trailing by 23 points and consistently coughing the ball up to ROC players.
ROC had the opportunity to hammer home its advantage with the breeze in the third term, but cost itself dearly with inaccuracy.
The Kangaroos booted one goal 12 behinds, including eight points straight, in the term and took a 33point lead into the last quarter, leaving the door open for Pakenham to make a run with the wind.
The Lions did just that after a stirring address from Holland, booting six goals to none and snatching a memorable win to retain its grip on second position.
The Lions running players in Jared Goldsack, John Atwell, Joe Allen and Seb Paynter kept the pressure on in the vital last term, but Holland admitted there was an element of luck in his side’s win.
“It’s so hard in this competition, but you can’t make excuses. I thought they were the better side on the day,” he said.
“They played with intent and their first half was as good as any I’ve seen this year. Both teams were courageous.
“We made some decisionmaking errors early, but that’s just learning again.
“In the third quarter I thought our system started to get better. They kicked a lot of points and we were still in range at threequarter time, but the way we won was very pleasing because it was a big effort from there.”
Many of ROC’s heroes of the first three quarters went missing in the vital last 25 minutes, however Sean Stanton, Michael Barker, Callum White and Clint Williams put their heart and soul into the Kangaroos’ effort throughout the day.
Shattered coach Hayden Stanton was at a loss to explain the defeat and lamented the Kangaroos’ inability to close out winnable matches.
“The pressure was good in the first half, but it meant nothing when we couldn’t kick a goal in the last quarter and lost the game,” he said.
“We should have had them going into their threequarter time huddle with no hope of winning the game, but they still had a sniff.
“We just can’t win those games. We haven’t got guys who are that desperate to win. There’s blokes playing in this side that have never beaten Pakenham and they’ll never get a better opportunity than that.”
