Star Weekly 21/8/22 – Tara Murray Photo: Spotswood celebrate a goal on Saturday. (Joe Mastroianni).
Spotswood is hitting its straps at the right of the year in the Western Region Football League women’s division 1 competition.
The Wolves, who are going for back-to-back premierships having won the last grand final in 2019, caused an upset in the first week of the finals.
Facing Caroline Springs for the fourth time this season in the semi finals, it was the Wolves who got the win and the first spot in the grand final, winning 9.6 (60)-5.7 (37).
Wolves co-coach Ian Allen said they were really thrilled with that win, with the Lakers the team to beat this season.
He said the two teams had built up a bit of rivalry and the matches are played at a good standard.
“We’ve been building throughout the year and we’re hitting our straps at the right time of the year,” he said.
“After the last couple of years there was a lot of emotion after the game. It’s a reward for how much effort we’ve put in the last couple of years.
“When the siren went, I was quite pleased.”
The game was played in difficult conditions with Allan saying they experienced four seasons in one day.
Allan said they handled the conditions better than the Lakers did.
“It was a contested game and it could have gone either way at half time,” he said. “In the third quarter we were able to get ahead and then able to hold on.
“We had rain, wind and sun and then more rain. We would get hands on the ball a bit better and the rain would come back.
“It only takes 10 minutes of football to change the game and that was the end result in the end.”
Kerrie Clarke and Maddison Cooper kicked three goals each. Joudy Joud, Gracie Lamers and Caroline Hardman were named their best.
Allan said the grand final was a reward for all the effort that had been put in over the process.
Allan and co-coach Chris Grant have coached both the club’s under-15s and under-18s winning three premierships before stepping up to coach the seniors to continue work with many of the same players.
“We’ve been building a women’s program the last seven years at Spotswood and the results show for itself the progression from juniors and seniors.”
The Wolves now have a week off and they will then face the winner of the preliminary Lakers and Werribee Centrals.
Allen said they know that there’s still work to be done the next few weeks before the grand final.
“We’ll be focusing on the things we’ve been doing at training,” he said.
“We’ll look to do our session this week and keep maintaining our skills and keep level headed. “We want to maintain what we have been building through the year.”
Werribee Centrals won through to the preliminary final with a big win against Manor Lakes, 13.6 (84)-5.9 (39).