A determined Cougars were not ones to keep their roar silenced as they fought back in the second quarter to take the lead by 3-goals, continuing to capitalise and convert the ball.
Driven by intensity and will to correct their 2018 Grand Final loss, Cougars delivered an unstoppable third quarter to score 22-goals. Cougars drives saw their attacking midcourt hit the circle edge without fault to feed into Julia Wooley and Ruby Horton.
Similar drives could be seen in their defence as Brooke Allen leapt with intensity to intercept lobs and long passes into Emma Ryde.
“We just had our game plan in defence,” Allen explained after the match. “Sit in front, force the long bombs and hope for those opportunities to get the balls we could. You’re a defender, you’re not going to get everything, so you wait for the ones you do.”
Geelong could not be stopped as the final 15-minutes ticked over. Showing no signs of fatigue, Cougars played to the very last second to finish off one of their most triumphant matches of 2019, a final score of 69-55.
Allen said to find the confidence to get back from their Grand Final loss last year was all about remembering why she and her team really play netball.
“You can never think you’ve got a win in the bag and you don’t want to be like that,
“We’ve grown so much as a group and the way we play for each other, especially in our first final we played against Falcons where there were moments I thought last year we would have let them have a five goal lead rather than us pegging it back and getting in front,
“That’s just credit to everyone sticking around to give it another crack really.”
An integral part to Geelong’s win was Vanessa Augustini who was announced Player of the Match for her work in Wing-Attack.
Captain of the Cougars premiership side, Mel Bragg, said it was a huge credit to Vanessa to receive the honour.
“Ness is a really dynamic and athletic player. She sets up a lot of play, she gets a lot of the ball and in our premiership match fed into the goalers really well,
“It’s a big credit to her because it’s easy to lose your head in a big match like that and she stayed cool, calm and collected for the whole 60-minutes.”
When reflecting on her teams’ win, Bragg said the shock of it all still hasn’t worn off.
“It’s just a little but unbelievable and a bit of a pinch me moment,” Bragg said. “A few of the girls actually messaged me the morning after the win and had to check it actually happened,
“It’s a real reward for our effort over the last year and also the year before that and has really been a long time coming.”
“Being down by a goal or two in a final, it can be easy to panic a little bit, but we managed to keep it calm. We just had to make sure we went out there really sticking to our game plan, which we did for the full four quarters.”
“Last year definitely put the fire in our bellies. That was our first grand final and a lot of us hadn’t experienced a Championship grand final before,
“This year we’ve really stamped a bit more authority and to take it out was a really important step in us setting up the next few years.”
