THE Crows may still be chasing their inaugural first grade flag, but coach Matt Smith thinks it won’t be too far away.
Despite losing by 23 points to Ganmain-Grong Grong-Matong in the grand final on Sunday at Narrandera Sportsground, Smith said the amazing season Leeton-Whitton had in 2008 hints at a bright future.
“It’s a bit disappointing, but at the same time I’m very proud and very excited - I’m looking forward to next year,” he said after the defeat.
“The boys did an extremely good job to come this far, so we’ve laid the foundations. Now we’ve just got to build the right house.”
The Crows came from fifth to make the grand final on the back of thrilling form, but it proved not to be their day, going down 15.12 (102) to 11.13 (79) as GGGM won its fourth premiership in five years.
Smith said they were simply outplayed by the Lions on Sunday.
“(GGGM) deserve it, they’ve been the best side all year and we ran second today,” he said.
“They pretty much dominated the game. We had control in the first 15 minutes of the game, but apart from that, they basically controlled it.
“Poor kicking early on put us out of the contest and our disposal wasn’t as good as it normally is, but they were just too good on the day, we’re not looking for excuses.”
The Crows started the game with some early shots, but the usually potent forward-line kicked three straight behinds.
The Lions found the game’s first goal against the run of the play through some good kicking through the ground.
Full-forward Anthony Carroll was nullified again by Craig Townsend, only kicking one goal, but Travis Carroll fired and made inroads to his six-goal haul in the first quarter.
Down by 11 points coming into the second term, Leeton-Whitton needed to score early, but instead GGGM found two majors.
David Elwin was working hard with some strong hip and shoulders and the defence did well to repel most of the Lions’ raids. However, GGGM started to win the battle in the midfield and provided its forwards with plenty of good delivery.
Josh Hall, who finished with four majors, helped get the Crows back into the contest with a monster goal well outside the 50-metre arc, but the Lions replied and extended their lead to 26 points.
Leeton-Whitton had more chances in the third, but three consecutive scoring shots returned only three points, before GGGM stung its opposition with a straight kick.
With the ball going forward after Smith pushed up into the middle, Hall marked well and goaled. The Crows lifted and scored two more to come within 15 points, but the Lions took the wind out of their sail again before three-quarter time.
Four straight behinds opened the final stanza, before former Lion Eddie Sullivan goaled to get a roar from the Crows fans. Sullivan intercepted a poor kick-out after a minor score and made GGGM pay for the error.
The Crows continued to push and charge on, but the minor premiers put the game out of reach, despite a late goal from Hall.
Steven Iannelli, Daniel Sullivan and Brad Boots put in a consistent performance over the course of the game, but history repeated and Leeton-Whitton again missed out on a grand final to GGGM as it did in 2006.
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