Braves’ wins celebrated at event

THE Bendigo Braves women and youth women’s teams received a civic reception at Town Hall following wins in their respective state championship divisions.

Braves Women also went on to win the national final.

Poppy Blanch plays on both teams, and she believed the squad’s success came down to being a tight-knit group.

“Coming into it undefeated obviously gave us confidence,” she said.

“We’d beaten Waverley by a lot during the year, which gave us confidence, but then also going into that first final against them it was a lot closer.

“But I think we had faith in our team that we were going to go all the way.

“I think they had a strong building block from the last few years with Mark [Alabakov] the coach, so running the same plays, a lot of familiarity.”

Blanch said she grew up admiring the Braves women and watched the current team captain, Kelly Wilson, when she was 12.

“I have a picture with her, so she’s a huge role model, and being able to play along with some of the girls that we have in our team has been amazing,” she said.

Wilson, who has been with the Braves women for more than 10 years, said the team used what they learned from getting to the grand final last year, which they lost, in securing their triumph this time around.

“I knew that we were certainly talented enough to be able to win the finals, but the pressure of finals and trying to win championships is not easy, so it definitely wasn’t something that we expected,” she said.

“We knew we had to work hard and play really well, but I think winning the South Conference gave us a lot of confidence, and we were just more excited about the challenge of playing at a national championship.”