By Tim Doutré
VICTORIA stood tall and thumped the boys from Western Australia in a battle between two state football powerhouses on Saturday.
The VFL side, featuring five Williamstown Football Club members including Frank Johnson medalist Matthew Little, dominated the West Australian Football League (WAFL) team to register a nine-goal victory.
Little booted seven goals in the 20.11 (131) to 11.11 (77) victory in a dominant performance at Leederville Oval.
“It was a great win by the boys; they worked hard all day,” Little said.”
“The midfield was really good. It was good coming together after only being together for three training sessions.”
Little starred up forward with seven goals and could not be overlooked as the best Victorian player on the ground.
Other Seagulls’ performers included the now Western Bulldogs listed Patrick Rose (three goals) and Ben Davies (two).
Williamstown and Big V captain Brett Johnson featured among the best with 30-plus possessions while Peter Faulks was a strong performer in defence.
Little played down his performance giving the credit to his teammates.
“It was just good to be a part of it. It was good by the midfield to give me such good delivery all day.”
The 24-year-old who spent three years on Hawthorn’s list for the return of one senior game is aware that AFL rookies such as Andrew Carrazzo and Shannon Byrnes put their names up in lights with quality performances in State representative matches in the past.
A quality performance from a VFL player would not go unnoticed by AFL selectors.
“You don’t think too much about that sort of thing, you just go out there and try and do the best you can, play your role for the team and hopefully come away with a win.”
The likes of Michael Barlow and James Podsiadly are giving new hope to mature VFL players, but Little is not getting carried away with the idea of a second chance at an AFL career.
“You are always open to the opportunity of playing AFL I suppose. You just have to play the best you can and if the opportunity comes up, then you take it.
“I was on Hawthorn’s list for three years; I was drafted in ’05.
“I don’t know, I mean I hope so (to get another opportunity), but you just have to wait and see if the opportunity would come, then I would love to take it.”
Saturday’s match saw the visitors take a commanding six-goal lead at the first change after a 7.3 to 1.3 opening term including two goals to Little.
The second quarter saw more of the same with five more majors (another two from Little) to the Big V stretching the halftime margin to 55 points.
Little added his final three majors to the team’s third quarter tally of six to help stretch the margin out to a whopping 76 points before the home team pulled it back in the last.
It was Little’s third time representing his state after two games as a youngster with Vic Metro in the under 18s. He said the pride of representing Victoria had not diminished.
“It’s always an honour to represent your state. It’s a great opportunity to play against members of the WAFL so it was a great experience.
“It was good to play with some of those boys who you usually play against.”
On the Williamstown side of things, with a new coach, five wins and second place on the ladder everything is going smoothly according to Little.
“It’s been really good under new coach Peter German. It’s great having him. He has brought a new style of game to the club. I think all the boys love him. He is a really good coach. I think we are five and one; it would be nice to be six and zero. We only lost to Sandy by a couple of points, but it has been a great start to the year.”
Williamstown host Box Hill at Pt Gellibrand in round seven on Saturday.
