Westmeadows coach Ash Flavel took on one of the toughest jobs in the Essendon District Football League two years ago.
The Tigers had been a perennial finalist in Division One but were forced to undergo a changing of the guard after the departure of former mentor Mo Kaakour, who secured an assistant-coaching role in the VFL.
Now Westmeadows is one win away from a remarkable Division Two flag under rising coach Flavel.
Only eight players from the Tigers’ line-up that conquered Burnside Heights in Saturday’s preliminary final – Jarrod Petersen, Ryan Capron, Jake Hatton, Aaron Evans, Jordan Kosteas, Riley Hearne, Ryan Stingel, and Nathan Sparks – featured in the club’s elimination final loss to West Coburg in 2022.
Last year, Westmeadows showed positive signs in the second half of the campaign before it was one of two teams relegated from the second tier after claiming four wins, including toppling finalist Hillside and Craigieburn in the run home.
This season, the Tigers finished the home-and-away rounds in third spot and recovered from a 45-point deficit to sink Northern Saints in the opening week of finals.
At the weekend they knocked off Burnside by 20 points – a margin that could have been greater had they not kicked eight goals from 25 scores – to set up a date with minor premier Taylors Lakes in the decider.
“I probably expected to make finals with the side we had, but to make the grand final is a great achievement,” said Flavel, who was an assistant coach at the club for two seasons before taking the top job.
“But they (the players) understand from last year, I just wanted them to think they’re Division One footballers, and that’s no disrespect to Division Two and the opposition we’ve played against this year.
“A lot of doubters probably expected us to finish bottom two at the start of the year, but we went under the radar. That was fine with me. I knew that we had a good enough team to get where we are now.”
President Will Kosteas said the Tigers had been “underrated” in pre-season following relegation.
While the side is young, the exits forced the club to push fast-forward on its rebuild.
Kosteas said Westmeadows was now focused on developing homegrown players and lauded Flavel for his efforts in uniting the group.
“The future of the club is going to go that way so we don’t put ourselves in a position that we were in after 2022, where a lot of players – and no offence to any players – were there solely for the money,” he said.
“We’ll never have that happen to us again, which is the good thing.
“He (Flavel) is very good with the young guys and he’s been able to make the young group feel very confident.
“Chatting to him, he’s a far better coach this year than he was last year.
“We had no hesitation in getting him signed up for next year… and he’s on board long term as well. He’s developing with these young guys and they like his philosophies, the way he goes about his footy and they like playing that style of footy as well.”
Flavel said the Tigers “had to reset” swiftly after 2022.
He said Hatton, Sparks, Jordan Kosteas, Reilly Holmes, Luke Smith, James Taglieri-Sclocchi, Daniel Spencer, Gabriel Guida, Mason Mineo, and Shaun O’Grady headlined the next generation of talent.
“It was more getting game time into these kids and that just probably fast-tracked them last year. If we kept the same side and added (players), these kids wouldn’t have played a lot of senior football, so it wasn’t the worst thing in the world,” he said.
“To fast-track these kids and give them a good full pre-season this year and then obviously improve by another 10 or 15 per cent, which a lot of them have this year, to get where we are is a massive achievement by the kids.”
Flavel reflected on the hard yards early in his coaching tenure, agreeing it made the club hungrier to taste success.
He said he initially had “no intentions” of being a senior coach and praised the work of his coaching staff.
“It’s not all about me, but what I had to take over was very hard,” Flavel said.
“But I just wanted to get down to work, and I knew it was going to be a tough year. But I thought we held our own last year in Division One… and we were probably stiff to get relegated with the bottom two going down.
“But we thought it wasn’t the worst thing to go down. Obviously the club was just resetting after the big exodus just to get back on their feet.
“We haven’t spent a lot of money this year, enough to obviously get by, but not like some of these other clubs have spent. So that’s probably a really good tick for the boys and the club to get where we are now with what we’ve gone through.”
Taylors Lakes stands between Westmeadows and its second senior EDFL premiership – its first coming in Division One in 1984.
The Lions powered their way to a thumping 100-point win in Round 8, while the pair shared the points in Round 16, adding intrigue to Saturday’s grand final at Windy Hill.
“They’re the favourites – they’ve been on top all year, so they definitely go in as favourites. We’re the underdogs, but I’m happy with that,” Flavel said.
“The first time we played them, they won by 100 points, but that was a bad week for the club, where we had a lot of players sick, a lot of blokes down.
“But to draw with them a few weeks ago at their ground when both of us were pretty much at full strength was a really good effort and obviously gives us confidence going into this week, knowing we’ve got nothing to lose.
“We’re going to go out full steam ahead and try to knock them off. The boys are not intimidated by Taylors Lakes. They’ve got a lot of good players, but so do we. We play a similar brand of football, both of us.
“I think our fitness, our conversion, and our execution of skills, if we can get that right this week, I think we’ll be right in it.”
