St Mary’s co-coach Luke Rayner has spoken of his pride despite his team being on the wrong end of a thrilling qualifying final clash with Leopold.
The undermanned Saints’ have been relegated to a first semi-final after the Lions snatched the GFNL’s first golden point victory following a stunning comeback from Rayner’s men.
Trailing by 35 points when Max Annandale goaled for Leopold in the opening quarter, St Mary’s picked itself off the canvas to force the contest into extra time.
“The overwhelming feeling is just a bit like a ‘proud Dad’, to be honest,” Rayner told krockfootball.live.
“We had a lot of young guys play today. Losing (Harry) Benson relatively early in the game, those things throw challenges at you.
“But, that is footy, and that is what we sign up for.
“To be six goals down, for the resilience the group showed today, I’m super proud.”
Rayner admits there was little he and co-coach Glenn Keast could do after addressing their players during the short break between the end of the fourth quarter and the beginning of extra time.
“The last ten minutes plus the golden point (period), you can only really spectate and watch the guys go at it,” he said.
“Full credit to both teams. Leopold got their momentum on us in the third quarter, and we were able to do similar to them in the fourth quarter.
“At the end of the day, there’s no doubt we had our chances, and we weren’t able to quite get over the line in the end.”
Already missing captain Jack Blood and Jesse Travaglini from its midfield, a knee injury suffered by Benson during the second quarter was a further blow for St Mary’s.
The Saints are confident the two-time Mathieson medalist hasn’t suffered significant damage but will undergo a scan today.
“It sounds like a fairly severe hyperextension; we don’t think any ligament damage or ACL or anything like that,” Rayner said.
“I’ll say it’ll be pretty sore and probably pretty severe bone bruising.
“I’m an optimist, so you cross your fingers and everything else and hope he gets up.
“We’ve had a trot in the last month. There’s seven or eight there you’d love to be having out on the ground.
“It was just not getting much of a run at the moment.”
X: @krockfootball
