Lions earn crack at flag repeat; Roosters-Devils set forprelim showdown

A BATTERED Sunbury has earned the right to defend its BFNL A-grade premiership crown on the grand final stage, seeing off North Ballarat’s challenge by four goals in last Saturday’s second semi-final at Darley Park.

 

The Kim Bailey-led Lions took nearly a full four quarters to eventually shake the resilient Roosters, but in the end did what was needed to prevail 59-55.

After an even opening quarter, the Roosters led by a goal at half-time, with the Lions reversing the margin to be in front by one goal with a quarter to play.

Sunbury – minus goal keeper Elly Randall, who broke her arm during the week and Tara O’Grady (overseas) – was able to skip to a quick three-goal lead into the last, and while only small, it proved a bridge too far for the Roosters, who edged within one goal on a couple of occasions early in the term.

 

A gritty win, with strong doses of trademark Sunbury class, sent the Lions into this year’s grand final.

They will be aiming to emulate the Roosters, who were the last team to win back-to-back flags in 2022-23, as part of a wider run of success that included premierships in 2018 and ’19 and a minor premiership in the aborted 2021 COVID season.

Taking nothing for granted going into the contest, Bailey said Saturday’s arm-wrestle was exactly what she had anticipated.

“It was a tough fight, but then again, they are a quality team. You expect that from North,” she said.

 

“I think it’s a testament to the BFNL right now, the standard of netball.

“We knew they would come out hard. They are playing on a fair bit of emotion, with the last hurrah for Annie (McCartin).

“They did her really proud today.

“We were able to just hang on and pull away near the end.

“We’ve been a bit like that. Our last couple of finals, all through this year and the couple last year, have been exactly the same.

“That’s our experience coming through.”

Bailey praised midcourter Abigail Inglis for providing the spark and run when it was needed for the Lions, and the workrate of goal attack Caitlin Hill (14 goals) out in front of Bec Hicks, whose 45 goals at 91.84 per cent were telling.

Away from her usual centre role, Tayla Honey’s impact at goal defence grew as the game went deeper.

Bailey said there was definitely a degree of relief attached to the win, but with their grand final spot booked, the hard work was only beginning.

“I think the players like the pressure and they were great,” she said.

“We were a couple of players down, but were able to lift when we needed to.

“We normally win a lot of ball in the midcourt, but we didn’t win a lot (on Saturday).

“That’s something we’ll have to work on.”

 

While a finals loss always brings disappointment, North Ballarat coach Annie McCartin could not have been prouder of her side’s effort.

Having led Sunbury for a fair chunk of the game and been in the hunt right up until the last minute, she went as far as to say it was the best the Roosters had played all season, even accounting for the previous week’s convincing finals triumph over Bacchus Marsh.

“We worked on a couple of things to combat Sunbury’s press, and I felt we did everything we had worked on,” she said.

“It was a credit to the girls to turn things around.

“They beat us by 22 the first round and 17 in the second; to come that close and only go down by four goals was a big effort.

“The girls really took the game on and put us in a position to win it.

“It was unfortunate it didn’t pan out the way we wanted, but we gave it a real crack.”

While she tinkered with her lineup at times, McCartin limited her changes to keep things as stable as possible throughout a gripping contest.

Experienced midcourter Stacey Matthews led by example, while Maddy Selmon was a tower of strength in goals with 37 at 88.10 per cent accuracy.

While all 10 Roosters players contributed something, Georgia Bodey’s third quarter at goal attack (six goals at 100 per cent) was a highlight and helped keep them in contact.

“There were some ebbs and flows from us, but it was a pleasing team effort,” she said.

“Maddy (Selmon) stood up, being double-teamed at times. Maggie Smith is doing a wonderful job, only early in her A-grade career.

“We’ll just see what happens from here. We were fortunate to grab that second chance (the previous week).

“I reckon we’ll give it a good crack next week and I think the girls now have a belief they can beat Sunbury.”

 

The Roosters will be aiming to return to the grand final for the first time since 2023 when they meet Darley in this Saturday’s preliminary final.

Just three goals away from Sunbury the previous week, the Devils rebounded in the best possible way with a 45-22 win over Lake Wendouree at Sebastopol on Sunday.

Olivia Cawthray dominated in the blustery conditions with 32 goals.

The Devils set up the win with a superb 15-3 opening quarter, keeping them in contention for a grand final rematch against Sunbury after last year’s thriller.