Katanning Wanderers crowned UGSFL premiers after thrilling come-from-behind victory over flag favourites

Katanning Wanderers won an epic Upper Great Southern Football League grand final after a clutch goal from Khallon Zilm with less than 10 seconds to play handed his side premiership glory at Clayton Road Oval in Narrogin on Sunday. Zilm marked the ball 35m out from Wanderers’ goal and went back to slot the goal with three seconds on the clock, his side going on to defeat Williams by four points in a wonderful league decider. The goal in the dying moments completed an incredible come-from-behind victory for Wanderers as they clawed back a 14-point deficit at three-quarter-time to win, 12.7 (79) to 11.9 (75). Wanderers had lost to the Cats in their previous three encounters this season, including the second semifinal, but four goals to Zilm and a wonderful performance from George Warren medallist James Laurino helped the club secure their first league flag since 2017. Wild celebrations spilled out among players and supporters as the final siren sounded and Wanderers coach Mark Pinney said it was a special moment in the club’s history. “I’ve been blessed to play 308 games of football and you know coaching the 2017 flag was special, but this one is really special because we have won it, and I say this with all due respect to our boys, with a bunch of misfits in lots of ways,” he said. “We had 10 or so guys who have played less than 20 games or less of league. “That is the most humbling thing, seeing their growth and development over that period of time. “We needed to be there stage-by-stage, contest-by-contest, and we needed to be really hard at the contest and work our way through. “We played our marathon and we won the game of footy.” The task of upsetting the Cats was made even more difficult when forward Laurence Collard received a red card in the first quarter for a late hit on Nicholas Panizza. The Cats capitalised on Wanderers being down a man, kicking three majors in the first term, two of which came from Andrew Crosby as they led by five points. Zilm opened the Wanderers tally and that he had two by quarter time after quick hands from Kade Stewart to young star Codie Mills-Durack set Zilm up for a second major 30m out. The Wanderers took the lead for the first time after a clever soccer goal from Callum Collard but the minor premiers hit back with two in quick succession from Simon Panizza. With Cats captain Riley Cunningham taking a number of strong grabs and a late Addison Dew goal put their side 17 points ahead at half-time. Reece Nicholson was moved on to Cats star Matt Priddis, in a bid to reduce the effectiveness of the Brownlow medallist, but the Cats added early majors in the third term via Cameron Stedman and Angus Longmire. Nicholson’s work was backed up by continued pressure by the Wanderers backline, with Charlie Tonkin running down a shooting Edward Aitken to force a behind that epitomised their presence on the field. Mills-Durack kicked a long goal and then Josh Pinney helped Wanderers respond and Stewart slotted a crucial goal from 35m out nearing three-quarter-time to get his side within 14 points. Spurred on by their vocal supporters Wanderers kicked the first goal of the final term through Caleb Gill but the Cats hit back as the pressure lifted again. Kyle Sinclair then produced two goals out of nowhere to give the Wanderers the lead for the first time since the opening quarter. The Cats missed a host of opportunities and extra time was a possibility. But Wanderers stars Stewart, Laurino and Zilm put on a final-quarter show. Stewart took a huge mark to get his side within striking distance but the star-studded Cats fought on and a clutch goal from Simon Panizza put them back in front with only minutes left on the clock. In a play that won’t be forgotten for Wanderers, Caleb Keley won the centre bounce and after a desperate Cats defensive punch, Nicholson roved the ball and snapped it on to his boot for the sliding Zilm to mark. Setting up his shot in the forward pocket in the dying moments of the game, Zilm calmly nailed the kick to put Wanderers in front by four points with only three seconds left to play. The siren sounded and the Katanning faithful streamed on to the field to join in the celebrations, after a victory that will go down as one of the club’s greatest in their 99-year history. Sinclair and Stewart kicked two goals in the triumph while Deklan Georgy, Nicholson, Zilm and Laurino were all brilliant performers on the big day. “Fifty per cent of our boys would have played under 20 games, so to finish where we are it’s a massive surprise,” an emotional captain Laurino said post-game. “If you’d asked me at the start of the season where we would be, I wouldn’t have said here. “There was that belief when we rocked up today that stemmed from a good game in the prelim.” Pinney said quelling the influence of Priddis was key to their victory. “We had to curb Matt’s (Priddis) influence and I thought Reece (Nicholson) would do that to an absolute tee,” he said. “We also needed a smaller tight forward to kick two or three goals and Kade (Stewart) did that.” Simon Panizza tried valiantly to haul his side across the line, winning many possessions and kicking three goals while Crosby and Dew added two majors each. Priddis was still a valuable player for the Cats and was well supported by Nicholas Panizza, Cunningham and Clay Harris-Haddrick. Cunningham said the loss was pretty hard to take. “It’s a weird one because we had such a good run into the finals and losing that one by such a close margin it definitely hurts,” he said. “It feels like we didn’t quite achieve what we should have but that’s how footy works. It was a hot footy, Katanning were better than us in the last quarter and they deserved the win.”