Echuca perseveres for dogged one-point win and back-to-back Goulburn Murray women’s premierships

Having the stage set by Echuca United’s Youth Girls premiership triumph in Sunday’s first clash on the Deakin turf, the momentum was with the northern outfit.

In contrast to the earlier decider on Sunday, though, this was not one where you had a side claim ascendancy from the get-go as territory itself proved difficult enough to come by.

The Demons’ women struck first and, as season-long observers would know to expect, it was Payten Johnston who drew first blood around the big sticks for the home side.

Equally expected to feature prominently was Murray Bombers spearhead Paige Baksh, who produced a towering drive to put the visitors on the board with a point in it at the first change.

It was an intensity level that epitomised the two regular-season run-ins between these teams, which United and Echuca had split, before Johnston ran into an open goal and saluted for her second to restore the Demons’ lead.

Katie Pollock would hit the scoreboard for the third time in 2024 off a free kick to continue the see-sawing battle, although the departure of Echuca co-captain Jacquelyn James, unable to put weight on her left leg after a heavy tackle, provided lingering concerns heading into the half.

Much as it had done in the first two quarters, United broke the frenetic tussle and struck first in the third term courtesy of — you guessed it — Johnston, completing her hat-trick after marking strongly.

Meaghan Demasi, somehow unmarked 15m out directly in front, was gladly on the receiving end of a killer ball that tied the game up once more deep into the third term, and extra time was starting to look a real prospect.

Demons coach Grant Searle certainly had his charges revved up heading into the deciding 15 minutes of the season down by a point and Charli Boschetti’s brilliantly executed chase inside forward 50 to win back possession appeared to set the tone.

The stalemate ever-lingered, though, and one side was going to need a moment of spark to notch what would almost certainly be a decisive advantage.

Enter — or perhaps, reenter — James, whose inspired snap out of a ruck contest just beyond the Murray Bombers’ goalsquare, after looking potentially done for the day barely half an hour earlier, delivered the dagger that sealed an Echuca double-header on grand final day.

Emma O’Keeffe got on the end of the game’s last possession chain to close the gap, but it came just a moment too late to resume in the middle as the Murray Bombers rose in jubilation on the siren.

The 4.3 (27) to 4.2 (26) result meant a double dose of heartbreak for United, which came up short in both divisions of the Goulburn Murray competition.

Echuca head coach Damian Dalziel was more than a touch relieved at the final siren and understandably so.

“All the girls worked so hard to get that reward and winning one is hard, but going back to back is amazing,” Dalziel said.

“When you’re seven points up with four-and-a-half minutes to go, the ball’s in your forward line and you’re just making contest after contest, that’s what you want.

“You start looking at the clock and luckily for us, after the last goal there was no time when the ball got back to the middle.

“We knew their leg speed and outside run was gonna be hard to keep up with all day, so we knew we had to make a contest of everything and make them feel every one.”

Dalziel knew that in the tough moments, which formed most of the day’s action, Echuca’s natural inclination towards rough-and-tumble football would ultimately provide the difference.

Nobody epitomised that better than co-captain James, whose return from injury late in the piece provided the difference.

“We nursed Jackie through the third term because we knew she could impact in the last,” Dalziel said.

“We’ve had to strengthen our mental toughness after we had around 14 girls at the start of the year who’d never kicked a ball prior to this season and today was no exception with her.

“We knew it would come down to who could capitalise the most and we pushed through.”

It was the other appointed Murray Bomber leader in Baksh, though, who received recognition from the league as best afield.

Also named among Echuca’s best were Jedah Huf, Olivia Dewar, Kate Dixon and Emma Daly, while United’s honours in defeat were led by Tayla Sampson, Molly Kennedy and Boschetti.