East Geelong is through to the Geelong District Netball League A Grade grand final after a 10-goal win against Winchelsea in the second semi-final on Saturday.
The Eagles were at their brilliant best, defeating their fellow birds of prey the Hawks, 36 to 26, and will play the winner of this week’s preliminary final between Winchelsea and Werribee Centrals.
Coach Justine Radford said her side steadied after a first-quarter challenge.
“The first part of the first quarter Winchelsea got the jump on us and we had to do a fair bit of work to get back into that quarter and we were quite lucky to come away with a two-goal lead at the first break,” she said.
“It did take most of that first quarter for the girls to settle, having those finals nerves and not having that opportunity to play in finals the week before.
“We knew that was going to be a situation that was going to be tough for us but we were well prepared for that.”
East Geelong entered the finals series on top of the ladder and now must wait another week for their chance at premiership success.
Radford said either Winch or the Centurions would be a worthy opponent.
“I’ve done a lot of observing and watching the games over the last few weeks of finals and I think both teams are very strong and are very physical and I think whoever remains composed on the day will be the team that comes away with that win,” she said.
The Eagles were well served by wing defence Claudia Cook.
“It’s a pivotal position to shut down that wing attack and force some feeds into the goalring that sets our defenders up to take some nice intercepts,” Radford said.
“She had an outstanding game because she has had a lot of consistency in that wing defence position this year. In previous years she’s been pretty much a swing, moving from goal defence to wing attack.”
The versatile Ash Cushion started in defence and then was moved to goal attack by Radford, a move that paid off.
“She was doing a great job down there but we needed a bit more of a presence in our goaling end to provide Shannon (Pietsch) with some support by being able to get their defenders to switch a little bit and that paid off,” Radford said.
“Not only did she shoot 16 goals, she went in and shot at 80 percent which is a phenomenal effort for someone who hasn’t been playing in goals for the last six or seven weeks.”
Goalkeeper Steph Boyce was also instrumental in the win.
“She remained composed and wasn’t rattled at all,” Radford said.
“It was one of the most settled games I’ve seen her play and she was able to steady the girls when we got a rebound or an intercept and move the ball sideways before we started to prgress down the court.”
Werribee Centrals, which finished fifth, are into the prelim after a six-goal win against Thomson.
Melissa Prismall, goal attack Ellie Vincent and goalshooter Ellie Tubbs were best on court.
