By Nick Creely
The RL ‘Cracker’ Jackson Stand was beaming with pride and passion as Pakenham celebrated its 1989 and 2009 premierships on Saturday afternoon.
With many venturing a long way from home to reflect on the club’s past glories, it was a day of emotion, plenty of laughs and stories, as well as an abundance of cold beers.
The 2009 premiership – the club’s 30th flag – was significant for many reasons, one being that it was just so difficult to attain.
Premiership coach Jock Holland explained as much to the packed crowed, and while he concedes the group could have pinched one or two more flags in that period, remains proud of how his side bounced back from two years of pain.
“People say it was probably a redemption year from what happened the year before,” he told the crowd.
“We got close in ’07, lost in the grand final in ’08, which we won’t talk about that, and in ’09, that core group that we had was coming into their prime at that stage, and there was a few older blokes too.
“We had some great leadership, but we felt like we needed a couple of players to maybe top us off, and we were lucky enough to have a great assistant coach in Ryan Cassidy, who was a terrific footballer but a fantastic bloke, plus Jack O’Rourke and Jake Matthews.
“It was great reward for effort, and we probably should have won a few more in that period, but it’s hard enough to win one of them.”
Holland said that a shock loss at home during that season to a struggling side was the catalyst for what was to come in an epic finals series, which included a 38-point qualifying final win against Cranbourne, a 98-point drubbing of Doveton in the semi-final, before facing the Doves again in the decider, and winning by a whopping 58-points on their home deck.
“We got beaten out here by Keysborough in Round 13, and they were bottom of the ladder, so that wasn’t a great day, and we had to change a few things,” he said.
“And we did change a few things structurally in terms of how we were playing, and to the boys’ credit, we responded in the right way – I was confident, I thought we had the best individuals, but more importantly the best team in the finals.
“After Round 13, we were nearly unbeatable.”
Indeed they were unbeatable, and in the grand final against the Doves, rated by president at the time, Brian Jagoe, as the biggest grand final in the history of the old Mornington Peninsula league.
The Lions had many champion names stand tall on the day – Dan O’Loughlin snared the VCFL Medal as best afield, and Dean Blake was superb through the midfield to pick up the media award, while the likes of Tom O’Loughlin, champion defender Nathan Brown and skipper Jared Goldsack stood tall.
The 1989 premiership glory was in the middle of a stunning period in the club’s history in the West Gippsland Football League – it was the third of a fourth-peat, with the club winning the 1987, 1988, 1990, and of course ’89 flags.
Coach Neville Powles said that the 23-point grand final win against Drouin at Cora Lynn was one of the most memorable considering not everything went his side’s way throughout the season, with forward flanker Tony Paynter – who went on to be drafted by the Brisbane Bears – snaring six goals, while rover Darren Hillard was simply everywhere in a dynamo performance.
“We won 14 out of 18 that season, we lost to Tooradin twice, they were like the land of the giants at times, and we just couldn’t match them, and we also lost to Nar Nar Goon and Garfield” he said.
“And there was quite a few blokes that left at the end of 1988, which is fine, and we did have a couple of guys come back, one was Mark Carney and the other was Darren Hillard, obviously legends of the Pakenham, and that made a big difference for us.
“It’s fair to say, out of the four premierships in my time, we were probably more fortunate as our side wasn’t as strong as we had in other years, but every other side in the competition weren’t as good as they were in previous years. So you can get a little bit lucky.”
There were plenty of unique stories in the 1989 side, such as first year player Travis Murphy – who emerged straight from the fourths to play a key role.
“(Travis) was quick, extremely keen and showed no fear on the football field,” he said.
Powles described the wonderful deeds of Paynter, Stewart ‘Froggy’ Fraser, Danny Monckton and so on in what was incredibly successful era of Pakenham football, and highlighted a certain individual as playing a significant role in the 1989 glory.
“There was a fella by the name of Jim Dore, who I thought played well in our year as well – when I say we weren’t as strong, we didn’t have a ruckman, and because I was the tallest bloke, I had to play ruck,” he said.
“And Jimmy was so significant for us, and he wasn’t a young bloke at that stage, and he helped us get off to a reasonable start.”
In an even more touching moment capping off a memorable day for the Lions, the family of Pakenham great Paddy Maher, donated the original 1952 premiership ball to the club, which was the club’s 13th flag at the time.
With many of the past heroes of the club watching on with pride, the modern day Lions further entrenched themselves as premiership contenders after all but securing a top-two spot in a strong win against Doveton in AFL Outer East Division 1.
