Myrtleford are back-to-back AWFA senior men’s league champions.
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Another hat trick from star import Tom Youngs helped the 10-man Savoys to a 4-0 victory against Albury Hotspurs at Aloysius Park on Sunday, allowing them to defend their crown for another season.
Hotspurs frustrated the visitors early, before Youngs finally broke the deadlock in the 24th minute with a perfect header over the top of Joel McDonough.
Just moments later, the Savoys were reduced to 10 men when Daniel Kioses was shown two yellow cards in quick succession.
However, it didn’t halt their momentum as Youngs won a penalty and tucked it away in the 33rd minute to make it 2-0 at the break.
Myrtleford continued to pepper the goals in the second half and Youngs eventually cashed in to bring up his hat trick shortly after the hour mark.
Nagus Henry put the icing on the cake with another in the dying stages to secure the three points and the league spoils once more.
Myrtleford co-coach Jayden Vescio knew it wouldn’t be easy, but was thrilled to get it done.
“This one means a little bit more, we faced some challenges this year and we really got stretched and our reserves are feeling the brunt of that,” Vescio said.
“Today we had two regulars miss out through card issues, but to still get the job done with 10 men for 75 minutes shows the commitment we’ve got from these guys.
“I said to them before the game, good sides win cup finals, great sides win leagues and really champion teams win two leagues in a row, and that’s what we went and did.
“It’s a club effort this one, the stuff our club and volunteers do, this one is for them.
“You go away of a pre-season and Matt (co-coach Matt Park) and myself try to work how we’re going to keep the group motivated and driven for success, but we don’t really have to.
“They are there week in, week out, Tuesday and Thursday night and they demand success.
“We’ll celebrate this and we’ll look to chase the three-peat (of cup victories).
“It’s always good to be the disliked team because that’s what drives you.
“Comments about people wanting to spoil our party, we love it, so keep it coming.
“Today wasn’t pretty, but come September when the grass is green and the ball is zipping around, I think we can do some damage and get that double.”
Vescio remains hopeful Kioses will only miss one week and be available to return for the first week of the cup finals against Cobram.
“He got shown two yellow cards, so I think it’s just the one week, but Jesse Stephens and Raul Pahina are available next week, along with Nathan Mirt who’s knocking on the door,” he said.
“We need to find that mix going forward, we can’t just keep dishing up what we have the last four or five weeks, we need to have a couple of options going forward.”
Hotspurs’ coach Robert Tuksar admitted Youngs was the difference.
“He scored three goals, he’s a high-quality player in an amateur competition,” Tuksar said.
“They’re on top for a reason and we’re where we are because we’re not as good.
“I’m proud of the boys after today’s performance, 4-0 is still a fair beating, but the first half an hour we took it to them and had some good opportunities.”
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