Premiership coach Shepherd proud for all involved in Thunder gloryWednesday, September 28, 2016 - 11:50 PM - by Chris Pike

CAM Shepherd had to bide his time for his first crack at being a WAFL senior coach but after some growing pains he couldn’t have been more proud of how the Peel Thunder and Fremantle players alike came together to win the 2016 premiership.

Shepherd had been a long successful assistant coach taking up roles at several clubs including Subiaco, East Perth and Swan Districts with the respect he was held in among WA football ranks highlighted with him being chairman of selection for the West Australia state team on several occasions.

After being overlooked for several roles in the years leading up to his appointment to being Peel Thunder senior coach in 2013, Shepherd was ready to show what he was capable of.

Peel Thunder make history winning maiden WAFL premiership 

After a tough first couple of years, Shepherd led Peel to its first ever finals campaign in 2015 and in 2016 not only led the Thunder to a first finals win, but victories over East Perth, West Perth, South Fremantle and Subiaco to secure the 2016 premiership.

With Peel's 23-point Grand Final win over Subiaco on Sunday at Domain Stadium, Shepherd joins an exclusive club as a premiership player (Claremont in 1987) and a premiership coach.

It's hard to imagine too many more deserving of that honour either, but for Shepherd he was more pleased for his players and the club who had to endure nine wooden spoon finishes before ever playing a final.

"I've been an assistant coach at a number of clubs and this club took the punt on me. It's a wonderful feeling now," Shepherd said.

"I'm really pleased for my players. It was a battle of attrition and our guys did themselves proud. It's a great feeling for the club that has been on the bottom for so long. It was a long time coming but we knew it was our time."

Shepherd and his Peel players Gerald Ugle, Rory O'Brien, Brayden Lawler, Blair Bell and Josh Bootsma, nor the 17 Fremantle-listed player let any of the talk surrounding the Grand Final bother them in regards to the Dockers' influence on the Thunder's success.

Quite simply, the Fremantle players representing Peel had all played enough games to qualify and each of them had fully bought into being Thunder players during the finals series.

That's why they were able to play together so well as a unit to win all four finals so impressively.

Shepherd has no idea why there were any concerns over Peel being too good considering Subiaco was gunning for a third straight premiership and a seventh in the past 13 years while playing in a 10th Grand Final of the past 14 seasons.

"I don’t know where the talk about it being one-sided comes along when you've got a wonderful club who has been in Grand Finals in 10 of the last 14 years, and won the last two and beat us in the first game of the year when we 18 Fremantle-listed players," he said.

"But forgetting all that, it was a great game. We jumped out of the blocks but they came storming back led by (Kyal) Horsley.

"To the credit of Silvagni, Langdon, Ugle, Blakely and Yarran, and others, we withstood some pretty strong challenges. Watching the game back, I was just as chuffed. I'm just really proud of the way the boys played in a pretty gladiatorial game."

Not only was Shepherd pleased for his players to now get to celebrate a premiership, but for those stalwarts at the Peel Thunder Football Club who have put in enormous time, effort and even money in some cases to see them through some terribly hard times.

While the alignment for Peel with Fremantle took some time to fully click, it certainly did in 2016. Shepherd couldn’t be happier to see everything come together to deliver the Thunder their first WAFL premiership especially having never won a single final a little over a month ago.

"They have been downtrodden for so long and a lot of people have taken on different roles to get the club to a level where it was competitive. Taking the step into the alignment allowed us to do that three or four years ago and it's been a long a battle for a lot of people," he said.