By Mark Murray
SPOTSWOOD will swing its attention to retaining the bulk of the squad that landed the club its first premiership since 1995.
The Woodsmen are enjoying the spoils of their thrilling grand final triumph over Port Melbourne Colts and are determined to create a dynasty, according to president Chris Murphy.
“We’ve already been speaking to the players and all of them are indicating they are not going anywhere.
“But I guess if the carrot is dangled in front of them they may have that bit of enticement to go for a few extra dollars.
“We won’t be able to match some of the clubs that are throwing money around, we just hope they are going to stay loyal to the club.
“Premierships tend to do that as well which is an advantage and we’re hoping that the whole team will sign up next week and we can give it a crack again next year.”
Spotswood won an epic Western Region Football League division one grand final on Saturday by six points against the Colts.
The match was decided in the final minutes when a 50m penalty awarded to Ben Harris resulted in a goal, giving the Woodsmen back the lead.
A crucial smother by Richard Wilson in the dying stages will also go down in the WRFL folklore.
“There were some very anxious moments,” Murphy said.
“Also knowing how much time we had left was nerve-racking – with four minutes to go we were still down.
“I think they showed great character and the never-say-die attitude won out.
“There were a couple of critical smothers, especially Richie Wilson’s in the centre.
“Brent Szalay’s run was breathtaking and had he kicked the goal it would have brought the house down.
“But the point meant we basically couldn’t lose.”
Spotswood was bundled out of the 2006 finals series in the first week, but it provided the drive for this year’s success according to Murphy.
“From a club’s perspective it has been 13 months of hard work,” he said.
“From the end of the season last year after we bailed out in the first week of the finals, virtually from then on we have worked on what we need.
“It started with the coach, and then the recruits that we needed to get and we decided to have a red-hot go at it while we had a decent bunch of blokes.
“We bolstered them with a couple of key position players and it has paid off.
“There was a group of around five of us that just worked tirelessly in regards to the senior team and it helped get the silverware.”
Over 200 supporters crammed into the Spotswood Football Club for the post-match celebrations on Saturday night.
