Caroline Springs is thinking what might have been after going agonisingly close to claiming two Western Football League division 1 premierships on Saturday.
The Lakers had both their division 1 seniors and reserves sides in action in the final games of the season.
Both sides faced an experienced Werribee Districts unit.
Both Tigers sides were facing off in their fourth straight grand finals.
The Lakers seniors side was playing in its first division 1 grand final. They hadn’t played in a grand final since they won the division 2 premiership back in 2016.
Just Lewis Tudor and Jerome Caterino played in that 2016 grand final, along with now Lakers coach Brian Lake.
The Lakers suffered a blow before the game with skipper Keenan O’Shea ruled out with a hamstring injury.
There were no early game nerves for the Lakers, who led by 11 points at quarter time despite the Tigers having the win.
Caroline Springs wasn’t able to make the most of the wind when it had it in the second quarter, kicking 1.4 to extend the lead narrowly to 14 points.
The Tigers started to come in the third quarter and when they kicked four goals they turned the deficit into a seven point lead.
It became 13 points early in the last quarter when they kicked the first goal of the final term.
Caroline Springs, though, kept fighting.
When the Lakers kicked the next two goals, scores were locked at 62-apiece.
Tate Wood kicked the last goal in the final seconds of the quarter to put the game into overtime.
For the two sides, this was not the first time they had found themselves in this position.
The semi final between the sides last year was decided in extra time, with the Tigers winning through to the grand final on that occasion.
Reece Blackman kicked three goals for the Lakers, while Jamie Ristoski and Wood kicked two goals each.
Cooper Pepi was awarded the best on ground medal in a losing side.
Alexander Paech and Lewis Tudor were other standouts for the Lakers.
Speaking in the post game celebrations, Lakers coach Brian Lake said this one hurt.
“Werribee Districts, that was an amazing game,” he said. “For the spectators out here, hopefully you enjoyed that
“What a fantastic year you have had.
“Only if we had an extra 15 seconds there at the end of that regular time. You’ve done that twice to us now, congratulations.
“To the boys, we put ourselves in a position, the reserves as well… position for success.
“We’ve got to understand loss and suffering and this is going to hurt for a while.
“Suffering is sometimes a good thing, we’ll learn from it.
“We’ll bounce back.”
Tigers coach Chris Gilham said the two sides matched up really well against each other.
“We shouldn’t have been surprised,” he said. “We’ve had a number of close games the last couple of years.
“We drew twice last year and one this year, with two of them in the finals. Lucky for us we come out on top.”
The reserves lost to Werribee Districts, 7.9 (51)-6.4 (40).
