Ararat’s third consecutive Wimmera league premiership was achieved in emphatic style, led by a dominant performance by co-coach Tom Williamson.

With just one point the difference at half time at Anzac Park, Warracknabeal, the Rats served up a punishing second half to outscore Southern Mallee Thunder 61-10.

After going through the home-and-away season undefeated, Ararat lost a fiery second semi-final to the Thunder – a match that saw Williamson given two yellow cards – the second for an incident that remains under investigation by AFL Victoria.

The loss also meant the Rats needed a preliminary final win over Nhill to make the grand final, which they did comfortably by 57 points.

To add to its less-than-ideal build-up, Ararat went into the grand final without two of its best players – Wimmera league best under-21 player for 2025, Sonny Kettle, and key goal-scorer Jack Ganley.

In a low-scoring first quarter, the Thunder kicked with a strong breeze but only kicked two majors, while Williamson kept the Rats in touch with one goal.

With just eight points separating them, the second quarter opened with Naish McRoberts kicking a goal from close to the boundary before Williamson slotted his second to put the Rats in front by five points.

The breeze at Anzac Park calmed down in the second term as the crowd was uncharacteristically quiet at times – maybe waiting in anticipation for some fiery encounters.

The Thunder – through Reece Groves and Xavier Oakley – kicked two in a row to take the lead back, but Williamson’s third goal put the Rats in front 29-28 at halftime.

A superb goal on the run by Brody Griffin opened up proceedings in the third quarter, but after a quick reply from the Thunder, the crowd was set for another goal-for-goal term.

However, when the game was there to be won, Ararat showed its strength.

Goals from ruckman Cody Lindsey and 2025 Toohey medallist Ben Taylor – also crucial around the stoppages – gave the Rats a handy 15-point lead.

Ararat was starting to gain the upper hand, and when Williamson kicked his fourth in front of an adoring forward pocket of Rats fans, it gave the sense the top side all season was not going to let the game slip through its fingers.

Angus Dewar, Kieran Delahunty, Simon Clugston, and Coleman Schache were better performers in the Thunder’s attack, but Ararat’s defence held strong.

Particularly in the third term, the Rats’ defenders were superb, with plenty of intercept marks and loose-ball gets, causing plenty of headaches for the Thunder forwards.

When Griffin snapped his second goal, the Rats took a 26-point lead into three-quarter time.

It was all Ararat in the fourth term, scoring 4.5 to Thunder’s two points, as Williamson added another two to his tally to kick six for the day –  tellingly more than the Thunder’s entire score.

Williamson was awarded the Binns Medal for a best-on-ground performance, while Hugh Toner won the best under-21 player for the match.

Amazing win

Co-coach Tom Mills – who will step away from coaching next season but remain at the club as a player – described the win as amazing.

“I think there’s only two of us who did not play juniors at the club who played today, so as you can imagine, it means a lot – when you grow up in a club, everyone that’s involved, it means so much to give back to those people as well, it’s huge for us as players,” he said.

Mills paid tribute to his co-coach, who led from the front.

“ He’s a star every week. You can see why the players love him because he just leads from the front,” he said.

“When he is telling you to do something and he’s doing it out there himself, all you can do is follow him – he was amazing, really proud of him.”

In the first half, Williamson duelled with Thunder captain and league runner-up best-and-fairest winner Billy Lloyd, creating a top-class battle at stoppages.

“Billy has got a really good craft in there so I took it upon myself to go head to head with him. He’s a fantastic player – he is consistently up there in the Toohey Medal and credit to him,” Williamson said after the game.

The co-coach pointed to the efforts of his defenders, led by James Jennings, Harry Ganley and Ethan Summers.

“It’s pretty evident in our games, if they can squeeze, we can get territory and the way they set up behind the ball was second to none –  that second half just felt like anything that went in there was coming straight back out or was intercepted,” he said.

Williamson described the team’s performance as ‘awesome’ and thanked the club for its support in light of the investigation.

“Obviously it’s been a challenging few weeks, but us as a club, how we conducted ourselves, I couldn’t be more proud of ‘Hock’ (club president David Hosking), all the way down to our last player on our list,” he said.

At the post-match presentation, an emotional Hosking – who has led his club under pressure in the past month during the A Grade netball scoring fiasco, which levelled significant criticism towards the league board, and then through the second semi-final and ensuing Williamson investigation – thanked his club.

“To our supporters, you have been so fantastic forever, but particularly in the last few years and the way that you’ve got behind us as an organisation in the last few weeks has been fantastic and we are stronger than ever and we’re gonna do this again,” he said.

“To our players who rightly get the medals and put on the show – our players are fantastic, not just at football, but at life, and I’m incredibly proud of them. 

“I’m proud of the way that they conduct themselves as human beings. 

“I’m proud of the way they carry themselves and how they’ve behaved in the last few weeks under a fair bit of pressure and duress, and that’s when you find out how good your people are, and ours are first class.”

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