By Justin Flynn
Tomorrow’s Bellarine Netball League A Grade grand final stands out for one main reason – absolute star power all over the court.
Geelong Amateur and Ocean Grove are absolutely laden with talent with several high-profile match-ups on offer for the big game.
One match-up that might be flying under the radar somewhat will be between Ocean Grove captain Emily Moroney and Ammos’ wing defence Romy Harwood.
“She’s very athletic and flighty and great at taking intercepts,” wing attack Moroney said.
“That’s just something I need to be cautious of and making sure I’m using my body and speed where I can. We both know each other, and that’s the thing, when you’ve played the same team in the grand final for a few years in a row and played each other throughout the year, there’s a lot of match-ups that we’re all really familiar with.”
Ammos have not tasted defeat this season, but Moroney said her side has “full belief that we can beat them on Saturday”.
“We just have to play a full 60-minute game,” she said.
“I think that is the key to winning a grand final. You can’t play three good quarters and one off quarter. You have to play a full 60 minutes of your best netball.”
Moroney said Ammos’ consistency across the court was their greatest strength.
“They have a full range of 10 players who are all great players,” she said.
“Their ability to kind of control their game and their patience in attack is something that they’re pretty good at. So it’ll be about creating lots of pressure down that attacking end to force some uncharacteristic errors I think.”
Moroney said her side was “super excited” about the game and that getting off to a good start was important.
“Getting a good start will be crucial on Saturday to set us up for the game and allow that buffer because there will be changes in momentum throughout,” she said.
“That’s pretty normal, but it’s great to have a good start to set yourself up.”
Geelong Amateur skipper Keisha Guilmartin did not shy away from wanting redemption for last year’s result when her undefeated side lost to the Grubbers in the decider.
“It is a bit of redemption (and) I think a lot of us who played last year, which is most of the team actually, have the fire in the belly to get the job done this year,” she said.
“I think it’s still quite fresh last year that feeling when we lost and we certainly don’t want to go through that again. So it’s been a nice little bit of motivation coming into the finals series this year and knowing that we’ve got what it takes to get it done. We just need to actually put our method into action.”
Guilmartin’s tussle as goalkeeper with Grove goalshooter Bec O’Neill shapes as a key to unlocking this game. O’Neill came out of retirement midseason.
“Gaining Bec back, I don’t know how they managed to do that, but that was pretty awesome,” Guilmartin said.
“She’s obviously a very accurate goaler. She’s got nice height in there and plays a beautiful game of netball.”
Guilmartin said there is a strong sense of trust in each other’s games at Ammos.
“I think you‘ve got to trust the process,” she said.
“We’ve got a really good strategy in place this year and if we just trust that we do what we should do and what we want to do, I feel like we should be fine.
“We feel very confident about our game plan and the way we tackle things on the court. There’s just, not an arrogant but, a nice sense of confidence amongst the team.”
All grand finals are at Leopold Memorial Reserve on Saturday September 7.
13 & UNDER DIVISION 1: Queenscliff vs Torquay at 9.15am.
13 & UNDER DIVISION 2: Torquay vs Ocean Grove at 8am.
15 & UNDER DIVISION 1: Geelong Amateur vs Portarlington at 11.45am.
15 & UNDER DIVISION 2: Torquay vs Geelong Amateur at 8am.
17 & UNDER DIVISION 1: Portarlington vs Geelong Amateur at 9.15am.
17 & UNDER DIVISION 2: Geelong Amateur vs Ocean Grove at 1.05pm.
19 & UNDER: Drysdale vs Barwon Heads at 10.30am.
E GRADE: Geelong Amateur vs Ocean Grove at 2.05pm.
D GRADE: Ocean Grove vs Geelong Amateur at 10.30am .
C GRADE: Ocean Grove vs Modewarre at 11.45am.
B GRADE: Geelong Amateur vs Torquay at 1.05pm.
A GRADE: Geelong Amateur vs Ocean Grove at 3.15pm.
