Resilient De La Salle ready for their next challenge

“We made it clear to the players and Committee that we ultimately want to win. We’re not going up to Premier Men’s aiming to win the minimum number of games to avoid relegation. I don’t want to hear that sort of chatter.”

De La Salle returns to William Buck Premier Men’s for the first time since 2019, having dealt with a significant September disappointment for a second straight season.

They entered 2024 at something of a crossroads, having bowed out of the 2023 Premier B finals after a heart-breaking 5-point extra-time loss to Beaumaris. Would that bitter disappointment splinter or galvanise Nick Hyland’s group?

“That hurt a lot,” Nick concedes. “And our response could have gone one of two ways.”

“To put in all that effort for no reward really stings. But the beauty of young men is that they can tend to move on pretty quickly and apply themselves to the next target. And that’s what our guys did entering 2024.”

Despite the pain of that afternoon in September 2023, Nick realised it was merely another step in the long-term journey towards De La’s ultimate goal – reaching the top of Premier Men’s.

“I feel like we’ve been really patient with this build to A-Grade. We went down to Premier B in 2019 and then had the COVID years. But since 2022, we’ve known where we want to get to and agreed not to rush it. It needed to be a whole club build.

“We got our key pillars in place. We’ve been diligent in blooding young players since 2022, establishing a strong Under 19 program and rebuilding our connection with the College. So, we’ve been well equipped and built this growth for several years.”

The 2023 First Semi Final loss was front of mind when De La won the return bout against Beaumaris in the opening round of 2024. However, the early stages of the season were marred by inconsistency. They struggled to deliver their best on a regular basis, dropping four games by a combined 23 points (3, 7, 3, and 10 points).

“It’s easy to forget that we were sitting mid-table at 5-4 at the halfway mark,” Nick reflects.

“We played the winless St Bede’s in Round 8 and scraped in by a single point in the last 30 seconds, then suffered another close loss to Old Geelong.

“But I distinctly remember the player meeting we had after that game. We broke down the numbers and stats – which can paint a helpful picture sometimes – and said that, despite only being 5-4, our method had been really good, especially defending.

“We had some things to tidy up, such as ball in hand and accuracy in front. Take care of those, and the tight losses we’d been having could turn into tight wins.”

Suddenly, everything clicked, and big wins over Caulfield Grammarians, Beaumaris, and Williamstown CYMS carried into eye-catching victories over premiership contenders Old Trinity, Old Haileybury, Old Ivanhoe, and Old Camberwell.

“Everything changed. Our motivation and belief grew. We became predictable to each other, and our biggest strength was the evenness of our team, which sounds a little boring and clichéd.

“But we didn’t rely on superstars. Everyone played their role, and there was great buy-in to achieve team success over individual success. That’s a hard thing to teach, given that in junior footy, players just want to get the ball and kick the goals. But in senior footy, it takes a collective effort to win games, especially big games.

“We strung together eight wins in a row and just kept the momentum rolling. That away win over Haileybury confirmed that we were good enough.”

A final round loss to Old Geelong snapped De La’s winning streak and their confidence took a further blow when Old Haileybury belted them by 41 points in the Second Semi Final to send De La into a Preliminary Final against Old Trinity.

Staring down the club’s fifth straight finals defeat since 2012, Nick Hyland’s troops had to draw upon their reserves of resilience once again – a task made even more challenging after witnessing Reserves player Hamish Curtis suffer a horrific broken leg in the curtain-raiser, which saw that game called off.

But De La remained focused and jumped out to a 20-point quarter-time lead with the breeze before Old Trinity steadily worked their way back to hit the front early in the third quarter and then regain the lead 90 seconds into the final term.

Another goal 90 seconds later saw OT now firmly in control, holding an 11-point lead with the wind at their back, as De La’s season appeared destined for another disappointing finish. But Nick Hyland still believed.

“One thing that always stood out was how fit we were. We felt like we were the fittest team in Premier B and so the deeper we could take games, the better it suited us. We showed that in the Preliminary Final, going 11 points down kicking into a strong wind. But we used our running power to make the ground big and use our fitness advantage.”

“They were done,” said Old Trinity coach Donald McDonald post-game.

“But we couldn’t sustain it… it was like the 28-kilometre mark in a marathon. Blokes just hit a wall.”

Multiple T’s players were cramping, having endured a physically punishing heart-stopper the previous week against Old Geelong that had gone all the way to the final kick.

“Backing up again and getting pushed to the very extreme took its toll right at the end,” said McDonald.

The territory advantage, which had been squarely in Trinity’s favour, steadily swung back the other way as De La gained the upper hand. But entering time-on, they still needed to find two goals into the wind on a day when just four had been kicked to that end all day.

Up stepped a De La Salle champion to answer the call.

Two-time Woodrow Medalist Jake Williams had kicked just a single goal for the entire season, but his set shot from 35 metres out cut the margin back to four points at the 23-minute mark.

Five agonisingly tense minutes later, he streamed through the middle, received a handball and launched a bomb with all his might from 50 out into an open goal-square. It would pitch on the goal-line and bounce through to give De La Salle the lead with 28-and-a-half minutes gone.

But the drama wasn’t over yet. A last minute 52-metre bomb from Old Trinity’s Sam Phillips looked to have the carry before De La defender Luke Healy’s desperate leap and outstretched fist grazed the ball just inside the goal-line.

His ‘Hand of God’ moment will live in De La Salle folklore forever.

The siren sounded as Adrian Indovino ran into an open goal less than a minute later, sending the De La faithful into raptures.

“I’ve been involved at the club for fifteen years as a player, Under 19s coach, Reserves coach and now Senior coach,” Nick reflects.

“And it’s the people around the place that always kept me coming back. Those relationships are one of the key reasons why I coach. You get to know so many different individuals – their backgrounds, what drives them, how they fit into the overall picture.

“We’re not a club gifted with money and first-class facilities. The people are truly our heartbeat. So, to see 300 to 400 of them out on the field celebrating wildly after that game was special. To see what it meant to those who selflessly invest their time, energy and effort making our club run – our volunteers. That’s what drives our club.

“The essence of the place is to connect with our community and people. It’s a great place to bond, build relationships and friendships. People can escape from daily life. It’s somewhere you can go to take your mind off things and the club does great work in caring for and supporting its people.

“It will go down as one of the club’s greatest all-time wins. Those who have been around longer than I said it was the best they’d seen in many a year.”

But it came at a cost.

“I don’t want to take anything away from Old Haileybury – they were the best team all year and beat us three of the four times we played them. But in hindsight, we’d spent all our petrol tickets. It’s easy to forget how taxing a season can be.

“It’s a bloody long year. Plenty of our blokes have been on the tools all day, come to training, train hard, play hard, then turn up the next week and do it all again. I admire the players for what they put themselves through and they give their absolute all.

“But half the team struggled to get up for training on that Thursday night after the Preliminary Final. That’s not an excuse. Old Haileybury were good enough to make us pay.”

The Bloods dominated the premiership decider from the outset, blitzing their way to a commanding 94-point win.

“We had a really good season, then an off-day on Grand Final Day,” said Nick.

“But the beauty of the promotion/relegation system is that you get something out of making the Grand Final. We didn’t get the ultimate prize but we didn’t walk away empty-handed either. Clubs like us aspire to be A-Grade and that’s the opportunity we’ve earned.

“So there’s no scarring there. We spoke about the result on the Thursday after the Grand Final and, of course, we were very disappointed. But we as a coaching group didn’t need to revisit that – the players felt it. The beauty of our group is that we’re so young, led by a few mature guys, that we’ve been able to cope with what footy throws at us.

“Let’s keep investing and keep improving, both individually and collectively. That’s been our mantra since 2022. Constant improvement. Where that ultimately takes us, who knows? But having that mindset holds you in good stead.

“In our 2024 exit meetings, we agreed that we can’t be satisfied with where we’re at. The level and standard rises in 2025, so we need to rise accordingly and we’ve designed our program with that in mind. We’re pushing our players above their level of 2024.

“It’s always important to improve your connection between defence, stoppages and ball movement. We’ve looked at it holistically and aim to improve in all aspects. We know we rely on fitness and team defence to run out games and defend strongly. We’ll back our fitness to take games deep again in 2025.”

“We made it clear to the players and Committee that we ultimately want to win. We’re not going up to Premier Men’s aiming to win the minimum number of games to avoid relegation. I don’t want to hear that sort of chatter. We don’t want to be a club that yo-yos between the top two tiers.

“We’re aiming to win as many as we can and what that looks like, we don’t yet know. We can’t win games right now (during the pre-season) but we can lose them if we don’t prepare well. We need to make sure we’re well prepared for what’s ahead. We’re focused on making the most of every session.”

De La have a raft of ins and outs for the upcoming campaign.

“Rob Amendola joins us from East Malvern, along with Nick Buffalo from Bentleigh, Vlad Stevancevic from St Kevin’s, Tom Itter from playing in Malaysia last year and Jamie Brooker from South Melbourne Districts.

“Jamie’s a great story – we’ve got a couple of people with South Melbourne connections, who suggested we might want to look at this guy in Division 2. He’s clearly got X-factor – he’s kicked 99 goals across the last two seasons.

“We approached him and asked if he’d like to test himself at a higher level and he hasn’t missed a beat. He’s been fantastic as a tall marking key forward.

“Liam Woods has retired, Nathan Scollo’s gone to Murrumbeena, Campbell Bedford to Bentleigh, Lachie Gawel to Elmore and Charlie Aitken has joined his Dad Ian, who is coaching his final season at Preston. Charlie has been as loyal as anything to us so we wish him well for this special year with his Dad and he’s guaranteed me he’s coming back next year!”

“If we were going up and it felt rushed and unplanned, I would have concerns. But I feel like we’ve been really patient with this build.

“I’ve spoken to a lot of De La Salle faithful recently, and so many have told me how excited they are to continue watching our journey.

“We gave them plenty of thrilling entertainment in 2024, so I hope even more jump on to support us in 2025 by getting along to as many games as possible, beginning in Round 1, when we hope to spoil Xavs’ party as they reopen the new Toorak Park!”

That promises to be another afternoon to remember for De La loyalists as their team returns to Premier Men’s for the first time in six long years, armed with new levels of fitness and resilience that will make them a handful throughout 2025.