When the final siren sounded at 5.13pm on Saturday afternoon, there were two players wearing navy blue who were leading the celebrations – albeit at opposite ends of the ground.
Troy Coates, who only moments before had the ball in his hands in the dying seconds, was mobbed in the forward pocket by his teammates – all of whom streamed from every corner of the Swan Hill Rec. Reserve to reach their much-loved leader.
While Coates was being crushed at one end, his joint coach and great mate Bryce Curnow was receiving similar treatment at half back.
While in that moment the pair were separated by a one-hundred-meter stretch of grass, it was also the point where they would be forever bonded together, having now lead the Blues to the flag in one of the most hard fought Central Murray grand finals in recent memory.
For Coates, this was not his first time holding the cup aloft on the dais – however it was for Curnow, who can now add premiership winning coach to his impressive CV.
Their contribution didn’t just stop with the magnet board on Saturday afternoon, with both Curnow and Coates big contributors on the field in their teams 10-point win – with Coates kicking two of the first three goals of the game and Curnow an ever-present threat both in defence and attack in a strong four quarter performance.
For Coates, Saturday saw him win his eighth premiership for the Blues – a remarkable record that would rival anyone’s. But this one felt different – perhaps even a bit special – for the man who had seen it all before.
“When you get to my age, you never know when your next opportunity is going to come along, or even if you’ll get another opportunity,” Coates said.
“All week I was thinking about that and to come out and win it today and do it against a quality opponent like Cohuna as well means a lot.”
“I’ve got nothing but respect for Cohuna, they’re a great side and they’ve got some great players and they’re really quality guys too, so I have a lot of respect for them – but the way we attacked the game in that last quarter today was just incredible.”
“Of all the premierships we’ve won, this one was the one we earned the most – it was the first time we’ve ever had to go through a Prelim Final and do it the hard way and we certainly had to earn it.”
And earn it they did, with Cohuna pushing the Blues right to the final siren in the difficult conditions. But it wasn’t just their opponents that stood in Kerang’s way, with the extent of the Blues injury crisis only being revealed following the final siren – and just how close the story came to being written completely differently.
“We’ve kept it pretty low key, but some of the injuries that our guys were carrying were just off the charts,” Coates said.
“‘Staggy’ (Nick Stagg) was diagnosed with osteitis pubis halfway through the year and as you could see at the end he could hardly walk and ‘Rossy’ (Lachlan Ross) has three cracks in his wrist – both of those guys put off their operations until the end of the year and just played through the pain, which was a remarkable effort.”
“‘Truck’ (Troy Davis) has a tear in his calf from three weeks ago and just kept playing, Jesse Clark has a bung shoulder, and don’t forget we were also missing guys like Brad and Scott Pay and Caleb Nitschke.”
“We had so many guys banged up, but the boys just kept coming in that last quarter and to come away with the win was just incredible.”
Saturday wasn’t the first time Coates and Curnow have shared the spoils of victory together, with Curnow and Coates having played together in Strathfieldsaye’s 2019 Bendigo Football League title – with Coates as coach and Curnow winning the Nalder Medal as best on ground that afternoon.
And while that honour would rightfully go to Josh Nitschke on Saturday, Curnow was no less influential – only this time as leader.
“I really wanted this one, not only individually as a coach, but more so for the team’s sake,” Curnow said.
“As I said in the speech post-game, the resilience within this playing group is incredible – to not have a guy like Brad Pay out there today, who was second in the Jack Betts Medal this year and won our club Best & Fairest not playing just showed how much character these boys have.”
“It’s just an amazing feeling and something I can’t explain really – I was getting pretty nervous towards the end if I’m being honest, but it’s just an unbelievable feeling now.
“I’m just so proud of the boys and so proud of the club as a whole.”
