The underdog always makes for the best story in sport.
And the weekend produced one of the greatest, if not the greatest, underdog stories of the 2015 NFL season.
Last-placed Mernda defeated Division 2 ladder-leader Thomastown by 15 points in a David versus Goliath battle.
Despite the odds stacked against the Demons, Vice President Bill Fitzpatrick saw the internal belief at the Club.“There was a lot that reckoned we could do it,” he said.
“It was an amazing sort of game. It wasn’t a high class game, but we did everything we had to do to slow them down and keep ourselves in the game.
“Thomastown probably didn’t expect us to be up and about.
“I think the backline played exceptionally well, (especially) Matty Duggan (and) Krys Douglas (pictured).
“(Thomastown) just kept us in the game because their kicking wasn’t real good, they kicked a lot of points that kept us in the game. It was pretty much a balanced team effort, everybody had a go.”
In a tumultuous season on the field, the mood hadn’t quite been the same since the preliminary final of 2014.
That day, the Demons led North Heidelberg by six goals early on but eventually succumbed to defeat to bow out of the 2014 flag race.
Fitzpatrick believes such a situation impacts widely on a football club.
“It affects everybody – everybody’s looking for what, where, why?” he said.
The ‘what, where, and why’, or perhaps part of it, could be explained by the tough season the Demons have had with injuries.
“The biggest thing is injuries, we’ve had another chronic year, (and) we’ve probably still got eight of our good players still out of the team.
“We have to really get the same out of the group that we’ve got with the top-up of one or two more coming back from injury.”
After a Division 3 premiership in 2012, in Brett Wilson’s first season in charge, the Demons are hoping to remain in Division 2 as they look to record a stronger second half of the season.
“We just hope that we can avoid that word – relegation – that’s what we’re after now. I thought we were gone for all money but they’ve certainly given me the spark I’ve needed and a lift, and everybody else has been a bit the same,” Fitzpatrick said.
And nobody knows the dreaded ‘r’ word, or situation, quite like Bill Fitzpatrick, who had seen it all before when he first stepped into his role as Vice President.
“I took over in 2011 when we were in a similar situation,” he said.
“Sometimes your back is nailed to the wall, not just against the wall, because I think that’s what it was.
“Nobody was more pleased than I was – (the win) just took the monkey off our back and we’re still with a glimmer of hope to avoid relegation and it’s entirely up to ourselves,” he said.
“I think the players are with the belief that they can play footy and play together and get a result.”
Despite one win from its first 10 games, Mernda is sticking by its senior coach Brett Wilson, who also believed all along that the Demons could cause one of the upsets of the season.
The 2012 Mernda premiership coach had his men walking taller from the week leading into the contest.
“It’s hard to get up Thursday night with selection and say the same things over and over again, but in fairness to (Brett), he said ‘this could be the one we could pinch’,” Fitzpatrick said.
And, as the underdog prepares for battle against Panton Hill this week, Mernda looks for a better second half of the year as the message is simple from Bill Fitzpatrick.
“We’ve just got to settle down now, and the win did all that for us.”
