East Geelong netball dominate GDFNL Awards Night

EAST Geelong Netball Club has capped off an impressive 2021 campaign at this season’s Geelong and District Netball League’s Awards night.

The Eagles were able to hold their head high after collecting not only the sporting body’s top individual honour for one of their elite A graders in Ashleigh Cushion, but also the 2021 Club Championship.

These awards indicate the Eagles now represent the highest standard of netball in the Geelong region, an accomplishment club coordinator Brooke O’Leary looks forward to defending.

“The last year for the East Geelong Netball Club has been our best year success-wise on the field yet,” O’Leary said.

“Obviously it had a disappointing ending because we did not get to finalise things in the finals, but speaking to the coaches, players and Ashleigh, it just makes you all the more hungrier for next year.

“The fervour for next season is increasing at a fast pace,” O’Leary added, mentioning that in a recent meeting with coaches last week regarding preparations for preseason, the players were excited to get stuck into it as early as November.

Amongst those players is the newly crowned A Grade Margaret Webb Medal winner Ashleigh Cushion, who tallied 18 votes on her way to be crowned the league’s Best and Fairest with Ellie Vincent of Werribee Centrals finishing a close second on 16 votes.

“It was a shock really when I found out I had won,” Cushion said.

“I thought I had a good season, but at the same time I didn’t really notice because as a whole, we had a really good team, and it is quite hard to separate us into who is good and who isn’t. It’s a team thing really.

“We have so much support at the club, and I feel like I’m just playing with friends the whole time.”
In addition to Cushion making the GDNL’s Team of the Year, six more Eagles would also make the coveted roster. On top of that, co-coaches David Boyce and Justine Radford of East Geelong were named coaches of the year.

East Geelong’s Tahlia Billows took out the Reserves Best and Fairest runner-up crown, Darci Allen won the C Grade Best and Fairest Award and Erin Fogarty placed second in D Grade’s medal count to solidify the club’s position in the club championships.

East Geelong convincingly finished with a total of 308 points over North Geelong’s 256 points.