When it comes to football in the North West of Melbourne, three teams have dominated recent history in the EDFL Premier Division.
Strathmore, Keilor, and Aberfeldie have combined for the last nine premierships and have played in many classic finals.
However, recent history would suggest that there is another team snapping at their heels and are starting to continually contend for premierships across every age group.
Pascoe Vale’s rise to the top of the ladder in Premier Division has put everyone on notice and has culminated with back-to-back top two finishes and a grand final berth in 2024.
Since the pandemic, the club came out of the other side of some difficult times in even better shape than before with the Panthers now boasting one of the strongest junior programs across the league.
The success of this program was on full display to the competition when their Under 18s lifted the cup at Windy Hill last year.
Unfortunately, the 2023 season came to a disappointing end for their seniors which finished in a straight sets exit at the hands of neighbours Strathmore.
In the push to go two steps better, the club turned to experienced coach Leigh Tudor to mould its young list into a premiership winning one.
While his first season at the helm has been a raging success, the former Kangaroo and Cat could tell from the very beginning of preseason that this season was shaping up to be a good one.
“There was a good feel to the club,” Tudor stated.
“Our Under 18s had just come off a premiership so there was lots of excitement and part of my role was to try and get the next generation of boys coming through from Pacco.
“The Under 18 guys are a really close group and they were excellent with the vibe of the preseason and the leaders were excellent as well.
“First day of preseason the boys were up and about and they came with a pretty good growth mindset of trying to get better whenever they come to the club."
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While Tudor has been the mastermind behind a lot of his sides’ success during 2024, the experienced coach knows that it couldn’t be done without a great team of people that went before him.
The establishment of a sophisticated junior program has allowed the club to rise up the ladder and contend with the very best sides from across the competition.
“The club has done a really good job with our junior program," Tudor said.
“The president Tony Paragalli, Jenny Tydell, Sam Scollo, and Jake Pantas (Under 18s coach), they’ve spent an enormous amount of time on making sure our juniors are looked after and they’ve got good facilities.
“There’s a bit of a brief there for me to try and get a couple of them games this year and in the end I think we’ve played nine or 10 of our Under 18 guys.
“There’s always just been a good feel to the club of the next generation coming through.
“We’ve got five or six Cannons kids, we’ve got five or six VFL kids on our list so there’s some talent there.
“My responsibility each week is to pick the best side possible to try and win a game of footy against our opposition.
“When we’ve had injuries or there’s been times when the Cannons boys can play, we try and get them in and give them a feel for what it’s like."
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In order to go two steps better, Tudor knew the side had to evolve and look for new ways to improve.
Tudor's appointment as senior coach brought with it with a brand-new game style and an agreement that his players were going to embrace change.
“Everything changes, every coach has got different life experiences and values different things," he said.
“The big thing we talked about at the start of the year was embracing change.
“The drills you do, the way the new coach talks, everything is different, so the big focus at the start of the year was to embrace change and it can be hard for some people, but the boys have handled it really well.”
While Pascoe Vale is one of the younger sides in the competition in 2024, its success wouldn’t have been possible without their senior players.
The mix between experienced veterans, exciting youth, and integral role players have provided Tudor with the tools he has needed to help Pascoe Vale contend for a premiership.
“When you look at our leaders at our club, Lachie Stredwick and Matt Stillman have been fantastic this year, they’ve really set the scene for the way we want to play, and they’ve been great leaders for a long time at the club.
“Jayden Ranno and Errol McConnell have just been fantastic role players and are really good team players that just do whatever they can for the team each week.
“To be honest I could name 20 players, it’s been really exciting the mix between youth, our middle-aged players, and our experienced players – they’ve all put their best foot forward all year for us and that’s why we are in the position we are.”
One of the remarkable stories of Pascoe Vale’s 2024 season is the journey of superstar forward Ahmed Saad and the impact he is having both on and off the field.
The sharpshooter’s move to the Panthers has resulted in 51 goals from his 15 games, but his season hasn’t been all smooth sailing.
“The biggest impact Ahmed has with us is our off field stuff," Tudor said.
“He works with the Bachar Houli foundation, he’s got great relationships with a lot of our players.
“Unfortunately, he did his ACL in our first practice match and ended up missing six or seven weeks.
“He’s come back to play for us, and I’m just astounded by his performance this year, I haven’t seen too many guys play this type of footy he’s playing without an ACL, it’s quite amazing, he’s had a massive impact on the club.
“It’s freaky – I don’t even know how he’s doing what he’s doing, he’s a very special person.”
On their way to second on the ladder, there have been many highs during 2024 for the men in red and black.
However, the finals win against their neighbours Strathmore stands out above the rest as the best moment in Tudor’s first season at the club.
“The game against Strathmore was the best game we’ve played for the year.
“We were outstanding, we’ve had a lot of good games this year but that game we had 22 contributors, everybody played their role, we were really hard in the contest.
“It was clearly one of the better games we’ve played for the year, everybody joined in, they looked really connected with their ball movement, they looked really connected with their defence and we were really dominant in the stoppages as well.
“We just stuck to our system, it was a pretty tactical game because there was probably a five or six goal wind, so we just played how we wanted to play.
“The biggest thing was we had a game plan set for Strathmore and the boys executed the game plan spot on.
“It was as good a team game as I’ve seen us play and that’s the goal to try and repeat that as many times as we can.”
By having a strong junior program, embracing change, and playing as a team, Pascoe Vale have shown that anything is possible for a club daring to dream.
While there is still 120 more minutes to play to decide if they’ll lift the cup, 2024 has already been a resounding success.
