By Tom King – K Rock Football

According to victorious coach Paul Lynch, Thomson’s belief and momentum from winning three knockout finals carried it to its first GDFNL premiership in six years.

The Tigers created history on Saturday by becoming the first in league history to come from an elimination final and claim the flag with a 54-point win over the Belmont Lions, 14.5 (89) to 4.11 (35).

After seeing off Bannockburn, Werribee Centrals, and East Geelong in successive weeks, any concerns around fatigue or similar were quickly put in the background, despite losing co-captain Sam Jacka to a knee injury in the first quarter.

“On the Tuesday night before last year’s grand final, we could hardly train.

“This year, we trained for an hour and a half.

“I definitely believe there’s a big thing in momentum, but you’ve got to make sure you’re not banged up and sore by the time you get there.”

Despite losing the coin toss and kicking into the strong southerly wind, Thomson conceded only one goal in the opening quarter.

“The game was won and lost in the first quarter,” Lynch said.

“But, I felt all day we controlled the ball around stoppages. I thought our inside mids were dominant, and I thought Jordy (Camm) in the ruck dominated, too.

“The likes of (Zach) Plant, Logan Mitchell, and Trav McGuire just controlled the middle of the ground, and they were just too big and strong for them in the end.”

Key forward Darcy Troop kicked four goals and was named best on ground.

“I said to him after the game, ‘That’s the best I’ve seen you harness that energy’,” Lynch said.

“I don’t think he gave away a free kick for the day.

“He was a huge focal point going forward; he finished with four goals and a dozen marks.

“Troopy was exceptional today.”

The Tigers’ victory follows success for the injury-prone former Geelong forward at GFNL clubs Lara and Colac and Colac and District club Birregurra.

Like Thomson, Colac won its flag after coming out of an elimination final.

“There was a lot of similarities to Colac, where we had a lot of injuries early (in the season),” Lynch said.

“At the end of today, we were still pretty fresh; we didn’t look like a side that had played four finals.”

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Senior Men’s football coach Paul Lynch has recommitted to the club for Season 2024.

The former Geelong Cats player and three-time premiership coach across the GFL and CDFL will once again lead our football department, taking his tenure in to a third year.

Thomson Football Director Troy Smith said Lynch has been “phenomenal” since joining the Tigers ahead of the 2022 season.

“We knew in his first season that the expectation was to build into something special and his second year has so far delivered on that,” Smith said.

“Both sides get the double chance this finals series and the Seniors finished as minor premiers, so we couldn’t ask for much more from the regular season.”

“Having Lynchy commit to a third year in charge is huge for our club and now that it’s done, our focus can turn to St Albans.”

Season 2023 celebrated many things for the Thomson Football & Netball Club.

From a football perspective, we entered our inaugural Women’s team into the AFL Barwon Women’s Competition. Competing in Division 2, the girls finished the season in 3^rd position but after some strong finals form, progressed through to the Grand Final against a powerful Geelong West Giants team. Ultimately we fell agonizingly short, losing in extra time by a solitary point. Irrespective of the result the club could not be prouder of our women footballers and we look forward to seeing what they can achieve in 2024.

In the Men’s section, club coach Paul Lynch has led the Senior side to the minor premiership (it’s first since 2019) while Paul Kinniburgh’s Reserves team finished the home and away season in 2^nd spot. Our Senior side progressed through to the decider but ultimately fell short to a very strong Inverleigh Hawks outfit. While it wasn’t the result we were looking for, the club is extremely proud of the progress we have made after missing out on finals the year before.

Netball has once again continued to feature prominently at St Albans with A, B & D grade all vying for premiership glory. B grade was the pick of the bunch after finishing 2^nd on their ladder and saluting for their 2nd straight premiership after an amazing fightback in the Grand Final.

Our presentation night was a huge occasion for the club to celebrate both the individual and team successes for the year. While we always focus on the achievements made during the season, the biggest outcome of the night was the induction of two Life Members.
Both Jackson Macleod and Jason Stein have been long-standing figures of the club and were unanimously recognised with one of the highest honours the club has.

The biggest news to come out of Thomson however is the celebration of our 70^th year Anniversary.

On Saturday 20 August, the club formally inducted new Hall of Fame members while elevating two existing ones to ‘Legend’ status.
A prestigious award only bestowed every ten years, for the very first time we announced two from our netball section and two club administrators into the Hall of Fame, while nobody could argue with the two who are now officially recognized as legends of the TFNC.

Hall of Fame:
Donna Macleod
Danielle Baker
Glenn Myers
Craig Jacka

Legend:
Ian ‘Polly’ Rankin (posthumous inductee)
Tim Gardiner