Football
7 July, 2025
Saints victorious in absolute thriller
The Horsham Demons came agonisingly close to clinching their first win for the season, going down to cross town rivals, the Horsham Saints, with a goal after the siren.
Midway through the final quarter the Saints were up by a point, and then a couple of points, but the Demons found the big sticks late in the term, putting them in front with the win looking like the deal had been done.
But enter Cody Bryan who, in booting goal number six for the day, broke the hearts of Demons supporters but elated fans and members of his own team.
His side embraced the goal-kicking number 23 before Saints supporters flooded the oval to celebrate the narrow victory.
The cross-town rivalry couldn't get any bigger and the game lived up to the hype as the teams contested the Pelican Cup, named in memory of John 'Pelican' O'Callaghan, a stalwart of both the Horsham sides.
A big crowd attended the match, the only game held on Sunday, and were in full voice.
Heading into the match the Demons were last on the ladder and the Saints seventh, but Mail-Times readers were warned that when the sides came head to head that didn't ever matter.
For the gallant but losing side, Matthew Long impacted the score with eight majors, while for the Saints, Bryan was their leading goal scorer, with Mitch Martin contributing three.
Long and Hudson Hair were the better players for the Demons while Bryan and Jackson Davidson were best on ground for the Saints.
After the win, chatting to the Mail-Times, Saints coach Ben Knott said he had calmed down a bit and his heart-rate had slowed.
He said coaching from the side, there wasn't a lot more he could do in the dying minutes of the match.
"Out there the boys know what they've got to do in terms of (being) behind the footy or in front of the footy when you're down or up," Knott said.
"We can't do much here so you just sit there and cross the fingers really."
With the ball in the hands of Bryan to claim the win for the Saints, the coach said he had a lot of faith in him finding the big sticks.
"Well, he kicked five before that so he had a good day," Knott said.
"And for a big man, he's one of our better kicks.
"So, no, I was pretty confident, to be fair."
But Knott admitted the win didn't come before a stern talking-to to his side at the half-time break, where he bluntly told them to "pull their fingers out".
"Look, Horsham, to their credit, played really well and they came in with a game plan that really stifled us," Knott said.
"And we didn't always handle the pressure.
"We weren't playing the way we wanted to play.
"So it was more just a bit of a rev about getting back to how we wanted to play and not falling into bad habits, basically."
Prompted on what it was the Demons did to throw his side, Knott said the opposition covered the exits of the Saints.
"They set up really well around the footy, forced us in," he said.
"We got all sucked into the footy and they (Demons) were on the outside and they kept knocking it forward and then they were getting us on the outside."