“By about three-quarter time, I thought we had it won,” says Eden Whalers coach Shane Crowe.
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“The girls had done all the hard work and it was just a matter of finishing off in the last 15 minutes.”
And the Whalers did exactly that to clinch their second women’s SCAFL flag on Saturday, upstaging the Tathra Sea Eaglettes 6-2-38 to 4-3-27.
Carra Sheldon was named woman of the match for a dominant display, while Crowe also heaped praise on Grubesic and the Mitchell twins.
Crowe said it had been a growing year for the Whalers with some new faces in the squad.
“We lost a couple from last year, but we picked up four 13-year-olds this year and they’ve come a long way,” he said.
“You could see their confidence growing each game and they came alive in the finals.”
He also commended the six players who made the regular trip up from Cann River to play with the team, noting a 50-strong cheer squad from the town ventured up for the grand final to root for their players.
Tathra held a one point lead for most of the third quarter, but a quick goal early in the fourth period to Kamilla Grubesic set Eden alight to steal the show and win.
The Eden coach had no illusions about it being an easy contest against the premiership favourites.
“We’ve got a lot of respect for all their players, so we didn’t try and mark anyone in particular – we just had to work hard as a team.”
The Whalers had matched Tathra in the opening quarter to trail by just a solitary point, but got to a five-point lead with the wind at their back in the second period.
Even when going against the howling icy wind, Crowe said Eden defended well as players flooded into the contest.
“We just tried to make it contested as we could and get some of our stronger girls around the ball contest,” Crowe said.
But when the Whalers came up with the ball, they were able to kick clear into open space where their on-ballers could go to work.
It paid dividends against Pambula in the preliminary final and was influential in the win over Tathra.
“We switched it up and went away from what we had been doing most of the year,” Crowe said.
The win compounds Eden’s success in the women’s draw as the sole-flag winners in the emerging competition.
Crowe commended the team and said celebrations ran well into Sunday after the win.
Results in other grades also provided a bit of an upset as the Pambula Panthers outmatched Narooma for the first grade crown.
Earlier, the Merimbula 16s had sparked a second-half fightback to keep the Panthers scoreless and run out the win over Pambula.