Holbrook captain Jacob Way reflects on the premiership win and his leadership

The man wearing No.1 on his back shared a huge embrace with coach Matt Sharp and turned to see his mud-spattered Holbrook team-mates closing in around the podium.

Up went the cup and and up went a huge roar from the Brookers faithful on the ground as Way and Sharp were swamped by jubilant figures in green and gold rushing in to join in the celebrations.

It may only have lasted a few seconds but the captain's prerogative of taking the spotlight was a moment in time which will stay with Way forever.

"I take a great deal of pride in the captaincy," he said.

"But initially, it wasn't something I wanted to do.

"I'm not big on talking in front of people, my style is to lead from the front and lead by example.

"For the first season, I'd get more nervous about having to talk in front of the group before the game than I was about the game itself.

"But this year I felt I could use it as a tool to maybe rev some people up, get the team going and really get across what we needed to do.

"I felt I could do that a lot more this year, especially towards the back half of the season.

"It's just a title but it feels like it is a big responsibility so I carried that with me; I really wanted to be able to do something with it."

Raised in Berrigan, Way had three spells at his home club and won a junior premiership at Finley but it was losing two grand finals with Thurgoona in 2011 and 2012 which threatened to define his career prior to Holbrook's heroics.

"I always think back to it," he said.

"When you're young, you think you're going to get those opportunities all the time but it just doesn't come around that often so it has haunted me quite a bit, those couple that we lost."

Two years at Lavington followed, Way splitting his time between seniors and reserves.

"When Sharpy first went out to Holbrook, there was a group of us that went out and I don't think they'd played finals for a very long time," he said.

"They'd been around the bottom of the ladder for a few years but we made finals that first year and it's been building from there.

"The culture's changed quite a bit.

"Early doors, you'd get quite a few still not training or training only Thursday nights and that was a big thing Sharpy brought with him, that professionalism.

"Even though it's country football, if you're going to commit, let's commit for the whole season, get your Tuesday-Thursdays in and you can build from there.

"That's probably the big thing, just making sure the whole group's on the same level."

Talk is cheap but Holbrook's hard work spoke for itself in the last quarter of a grand final which will live long in the memory.

Up against an Osborne side undefeated in 35 games and which had beaten them three times already in 2022, the Brookers outscored their rivals by 7.6 to 2.0 in a stunning climax.

"We'd been waiting the whole year for that switch to flick," Way said.

"We knew we were a good team, we knew we had the talent and we knew when we played well we could beat anyone but we'd only been able to do it in glimpses.

"For some reason, that last quarter, first ball-up, we got a quick goal and it seemed like everyone was on.

"I don't think we did it for the rest of the year, it was just that one quarter and, in the end, that's all it took."

If you could bottle the feeling, Way would buy a crate.

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"That last 10 minutes of the game, when we knew we had it won and the hour afterwards was unreal," he said.

"The rest of it, the carry-on, that happens win, lose or draw but those feelings straight after were special.

"My wife was there, my younger sister and my parents.

"Mum had been away travelling for two years so it was good to have her back.

"I think she really came back for my sister's award (Emily Browne, the Toni Wilson medallist) but got to witness that as well!

"As you get older, your priorities change.

"You start to question whether it's worth all the effort you're putting in, so to have a moment like that, it's priceless and really does make it worth it."

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