2024 – A Golden Vintage for Old Scotch (Part 1: The Stars)

Old Scotch fans will fondly remember 2024 as they experienced the view from the top of the mountain in both the Premier Men’s and Premier Women’s competitions for the first time.

In Part I of our two-part feature on Old Scotch’s history-making season, we celebrate the club’s first Premier Women’s flag:

PART 1: THE STARS

Old Scotch had finished third in 2023, held goalless by St Kevin’s in the Preliminary Final.

“I expected us to be competitive,” said Old Scotch Stars Coach Dean Anderson of his expectations entering 2024.

“It takes time to build, and we hadn’t lost many players over the last three years, which impacts how we can play. A bit of success makes it easier to recruit, but we knew that St Kevin’s, Kew & Caulfield would all be challenging as well.”

Aiming for an incredible fourth straight premiership, St Kevin’s began the season as the clear benchmark, and every other team knew that the path to glory would ultimately run through the Saints.

And so it came to be, as St Kevin’s went 17-1 during the home & away season. Their only loss came to Old Scotch in a 5-point Round 17 thriller that saw the Stars jump over the Saints to claim the minor premiership themselves, as they also went 17-1 in a two-horse race that left both powerhouse teams an incredible 5 games clear of the field.

It set the scene for a massive Second Semi Final showdown which saw Old Scotch hold St Kevin’s goalless in the first half to lead by three goals before the reigning champs booted the next five goals to win by 8 points and progress straight through to another Grand Final Day, consigning the Stars to a cut-throat Preliminary Final against Caulfield Grammarians.

But Anderson wasn’t phased.

“Given our relative lack of experience, playing three finals was good for us. It gave us an extra week of finals experience and we’d had a few girls out for a few weeks injured, so that gave us an extra chance to get another game into them too.

“Losing the Second Semi doesn’t always work in your favour and it makes for a harder journey. But we just had to grind it out.”

The Stars responded to the disappointment of the Second Semi Final by leaping out of the blocks to keep Caulfield scoreless in the first half of the Preliminary Final, setting up what turned out to be an impressive and confidence-boosting 50-point win.

“We had good players, we just had to put it all together,” said Anderson.

“The big key to success for us was picking players that were fully invested and there for the right reasons. The players we went with come finals time had really bought into how we wanted to behave as a club. That’s key.

“We’re a process-based group and that Second Semi loss galvanised our group more than anything. It allowed us to go to work on things we could improve. If we’d won that game, maybe we wouldn’t have worked as hard. It was also useful for our coaches as we watched it back, learned some lessons and changed things up to be better in the Grand Final.”

Old Scotch entered the much-anticipated premiership decider as underdogs but with firm belief, given they’d beaten the Saints just four weeks earlier.

That belief grew when Jordan Mifsud booted the only three goals of the opening term to give the Stars the early jump on St Kevin’s once again. The margin edged out to 37 points midway through the second term before the Saints rallied to kick a couple of goals and reduce the margin to 25 at half-time.

Given the events of a fortnight earlier, the game was still well and truly alive.

Old Scotch regained the ascendancy in the early stages of the third term before St Kevin’s ramped up their intensity and started throwing everything at the Stars. But where they had faltered in the Second Semi, they stood tall in the decider as the Old Scotch defence withstood the tirade and managed to hold the margin at 25 points at the last change.

When Jordan Mifsud booted the opening goal of the last term (her fourth of the day), the damage was done and Old Scotch was able to effectively control the final quarter and post a history-making 32-point win.

“When you’re touted as the underdog, it’s always a little sweeter,” Anderson reflects.

“It wasn’t an easy win. The players worked hard for it and I was really tired at the end! It’s so consuming – I was exhausted! There’s a fair bit involved and a lot goes into the infrastructure around the group as well.

“I do it (coaching) for others. I like to see the joy in people around me. I’ve got five Scotch Life Members that help me with our program, which is unbelievable. Those guys haven’t won much over the years, so they were thrilled. They love the environment and the club. There’s something in that.

“Our two captains are home-grown Scotch Stars, so to see them hold the trophy was great. It was a celebration of everyone involved. We had whole-of-club support, with plenty of the boys turning up to support us. We’re really proud of the ‘one club’ thing.

“And the entire club, led by the likes of President Will Strange and GM Andrew Toop, has been invested in supporting our program. We had half the men’s team making the trek across town to Hadfield for the Preliminary Final. They get it and what it means to our club as a whole.”

Dean’s day job is CEO of renowned leadership and management consultancy Leading Teams, so he places enormous value on culture and leadership.

“It’s at the core of what I do Monday-to-Friday. I got one of my facilitators to do some pro-bono leadership development to help us set the environment we want for ourselves. Maybe it sets us apart a bit, but good culture and leadership certainly helps us.

“Our players pretty much drive the success. They do the recruiting. If they’re happy with the environment we create, well there’s your recruiting tool right there. It’s not just football, it’s life skills. We want to develop people. When you get that right, loyalty and high performance come back to you in spades.”

It delivered another line on Dean’s remarkable football resume as a player and coach.

“Playing in premierships is different to coaching them. As a player, you have more control in your environment, but as a coach, there’s a lot you can’t control and it’s mentally more challenging.

“But they’re all good! I played in two with Caulfield Grammarians, two with Hawthorn, I coached five junior flags and this is my second with Old Scotch (after 2019 Division 1). They’re all great, all good fun. But the mental anguish as a coach is different. This one was a really good result for a long season of hard work and a tough mountain to climb.”

A new player points system may impact Premier Women’s recruiting for 2025.

“We haven’t dug into it too deeply yet. I know there’s a new system coming in but I don’t think we’ve lost any players and hopefully, we can just continue to build on what we’ve got. One thing that’s certainly happening is that a lot of our players are being recognised for their talents and cherry-picked by VFLW clubs.

“That will provide a fresh challenge for us, but it’s great for our club to have so many players recognised in that way. Plus, we had Sarah Poustie (Western Bulldogs) and Maggie Mahony (Melbourne) drafted into the AFLW for 2025 as well.”

Dean realises that the psychology in Premier Women’s will change in 2025 as his team switches from hunters to hunted.

“I think that’s ok. Great sides win multiple flags, don’t they. We had two players who did knees and missed out, so they will provide us with extra hunger and incentive. We know St Kevin’s will come back hard. Caulfield is emerging & others will come as well.

“We know we can still get stronger & fitter and take our program to another level.”