A win in a grand final for Corryong coach Evan Nicholas meant more than anything.
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After eight years at the helm and playing in four losing grand finals since his last premiership in 2005, Saturday’s win over Bullioh was a relief to say the least.
Corryong were quick to put any previous grand final demons to the side as they dismantled the Bulldogs 20.7 (127) to 10.5 (65).
“It’s just a really good experience,” Nicholas said.
“There’s been blokes like my brother Thomas (Nicholas), Jarrod Cass, Dan McIness and myself that have been through some pretty tough times.
“We’ve been here the whole time and we’ve got some big floggings, so it’s them I’m most excited for.
“You wouldn’t like to go through hard times and miss out, so be able to get them a flag is really pleasing.
“People say ‘there’s always next year’, but there’s not, you’ve got to start again and we did.”
People say ‘there’s always next year’, but there’s not, you’ve got to start again and we did.
- Evan Nicholas
Nicholas was heartbroken after another tight grand final loss to Federal last year, but his spirits were lifted by a phone call almost out of the blue.
“I had a very lucky phone call from Matty McNamara after the grand final when we lost to Federal and they (Barnawartha) lost to Mitta and he said he’ll come back next year (with some teammates),” Nicholas said.
“They’re good players that could be on big money, but they’ve come back because they like it up here.
“They filled the gap and we had to go one step further, which thankfully we did.”
Nicholas said his mother has gone through all the ups and downs with the footy club.
“If we had have lost today, you don’t ever want to talk about losing, I couldn’t imagine the despair we would have went into,” he said.
“When we lost last year, my mum was struggling every day for about two months and I don’t think she would have handled this year.
“As much as I would have been upset, I would have gotten over it, but she just wants to see her boys happy and we’re happy now.
“When you live and breathe footy, it takes you until Christmas time to get over it, whereas I don’t have to wake up tomorrow thinking about the mistakes I made because they’re erased by the win.”
Nicholas was proud of the efforts of all involved to produce a memorable performance, particularly given Corryong used close to 40 different players in the seniors during the season.
“You dream of getting a comfortable five or six-goal lead, but probably eight or nine goals is nearly enough,” Nicholas said.
“You can’t keep good players quiet all day, but our guys did enough to keep them out of it, which is rewarding in itself.
“I was wondering who they were going to pick (for best on ground).
“I think everyone really worked hard in defence, we got to the contest and we outnumbered them.”