The Mark Gercovich-coached side suffered a six-point loss to Shepparton’s St Mary’s Primary School in the grand final.

The 4.3 (27) to 3.3 (21) defeat followed St Joseph’s narrow two-point win against East Bentleigh-based St Peter’s Primary School in their semi-final battle.

Gercovich said St Joseph’s fought gallantly in the decider.

“The boys were fantastic about it,” he said of the loss.

“They held their heads up and were proud of what they’d done and how hard they fought.

“Our boys had done a really good job.

“We were three goals up at half-time and they kicked a couple of late goals in the third quarter to bring it back to level.”

Gercovich said St Mary’s kicked the only goal of the final term to snare the win.

He said St Joseph’s showed fight in the semi-final after finding itself 11 points down at three-quarter-time.

“We kicked three goals in the last quarter to win so that was a great effort in itself,” he said.

Ruckman-midfielder Eddie Gattek was named St Joseph’s best player in the semi-final and Flynn Atchison took that honour in the grand final.

Gercovich said Marcus Herbert, Ben Howard, Tom Noonan, Jackson Timms and Luke Wilson were other strong performers.