By Tyler Wright
Monbulk Rangers Soccer Club Reserve 2 team in the Men’s Premier League (MPL) took out the Victorian Churches Football Association (VCA) President’s Shield Cup Final on Saturday 10 September, defeating Lilydale Eagles in a remarkable game that saw their opposition miss four penalty kicks in a row.
Gareth Otley, player-coach of the Monbulk Reserve team said the squad were “underdogs” going into the grand final and had to win three games before the match to qualify.
“We played Lilydale in rounds three and 13, and suffered a heavy defeat 5-1 and 4-1 respectively, so we knew going into the grand final psychologically they had a big advantage,” Otley said.
“In the last few months, we had beaten the top team in one of the rounds in the president’s shield, and we’d also had some very, very good draws against second and third place on the ladder, which stood us in good stead going into the grand final,” Otley said.
“We knew we had good form and we knew [Lilydale would] be quite aggressive when they came out, considering what they did to us in the past”.
In the first 15 minutes, Monbulk played defensively to weather the storm of the Lilydale offence; a tactic which paid off.
“At about the 20-minute mark, we completely changed our tactics…. we went from a defensive formation into an offensive formation, and we knew we had Lilydale playing the way we wanted them to play,” Mr Otley said.
“We went on the attack for the next 20 minutes…10 minutes into that attack, we scored a goal… a shot from outside the 18-yard box after a nice little build-up play.”
In the first half, Lilydale were awarded two penalties, with both being expertly saved by goalkeeper Liam.
In a bit of “disbelief” the team had made it to half-time ahead of Lilydale 1-0, the Monbulk squad returned to the defensive formation they began the match with.
At the 75th minute of the second half, a Lilydale player was sent off with a red card; only for the team to recover and score a scrappy goal just before the 90-minute mark.
This led to an ensuing penalty shoot-out, potentially letting Lilydale back into the game.
For the Monbulk coach, an unwelcome feeling of déjà vu started to creep in.
“We’d already had two or three rounds that went to penalty shootouts,” Otley said.
“But we knew from that, we had not only practised penalty shootouts, but we had a game plan going into it.”
Lilydale missed their first two efforts from the spot, while Monbulk was clinical — with goalkeeper Liam stepping up to blast his penalty into the top corner — before Monbulk converted their fourth of the shootout to win 4-1.
“The crowd came in and celebrated with us…even in the locker rooms afterwards, It was really quiet and surreal,” Otley said.
“No-one knew what to do whether they get changed, or go and have a photo or go to the trophy presentation.
We planned everything else but we hadn’t planned how to celebrate.”
The win was all the sweeter for Monbulk after Covid and injuries left the squad without a full team the whole season and only two subs every match.
“I’m really keen to see what else we can do now and whether we can go on and win the Premiership and retain the shield again next year,” Otley said.
“There’s also an opportunity to play in a higher division for us as well. So I’ve sort of given the boys a chance to sink that over and come back and let me know.”
For some reason, it doesn’t seem Otley will have any trouble getting these squad players back for next season, starting next April.
“I’m even getting text messages now, only last week – ‘when’s training start again,” he said.
“I think the focus now is to really continue to build on the team culture, continue to build on the style of football that we want to play, continue to build on the fitness, and start with a bang next season, and get the results that continue to form into next season that we finished with this season.”
