By Tara Murray
East Sunbury has made massive inroads this season, despite grand final heartache in Essendon District Football League division 2.
East Sunbury lost to Roxburgh Park 6.11 (47)-5.11 (41) on Saturday, but Thunder president Keith Osborne couldn’t be prouder.
“It’s been an unbelievable season for the club,” he said.
“Unfortunately, the result didn’t go our way, but I couldn’t be more proud of the way the boys conducted themselves on the ground.
“To take it up to the benchmark club of the back half of the season, Roxy, it was an amazing effort from our boys.”
Thunder had set their goal at playing finals this season. They achieved that and more, winning two finals on their way to a grand final appearance.
Osborne said for such a young club, getting so far into finals had been massive and the local community had really backed them.
“We’re the only senior side in Sunbury to play in a grand final.
“The Sunbury community is absolutely amazing. You walk down the main drag of Sunbury and it’s all East Sunbury.”
Osborne said it’s easy to forget that most of the side is still young – a third of the team could still be playing under-19s.
He said despite their young age, the players had shown a lot of resilience.
That was most on show mid season when coach Steve Grey quit the club.
“It was something that we had never faced before [such adversity] and something the young club had to face and to bounce back from,” Osborne said.
“Glenn [Hopkins] spoke about it afterwards and a lot of people expected us to fall in hole after that … from a club point of view we stuck fast.”
Osborne said appointing Hopkins as coach had been a great move.
He said Hopkins brings a lot of experience and is someone who has tasted success.
“We’re quite lucky we’ve picked up a guy like Glenn Hopkins to coach our club. Trust me, there’s no one more hungry for success next year.”
Osborne said the club was already well placed for next season and the playing group was already talking about pre season.
“The majority of the group is signed and locked away … I think there was two guys out there that aren’t contracted to our club for next season.
“Glenn is in for next year, Trav McCarty our footy opps is signed on and I’m elected for next season.
“The club is in a really stable position, it’s one thing we probably haven’t done for many years.”
For more on the grand final:
www.starweekly.com.au/sports/east-sunbury-bows-out-at-final-hurdle/
