On Sunday, the promising crop of female footballers went back-to-back at the Bendigo-hosted interleague carnival, beating the North East Border Female Football League in the final for a second year running.
The nature of victory was slim — 11 points, if you don’t mind — but sweet as the Grant Searle-led girls retook the throne as the best girls’ side in a wider 300km radius.
After beating Central Victoria Football League and NEBFFL in pool play, the GMWGL contingent held on for a 2.8 (20) to 1.3 (9) triumph over the latter in the decider.
Sunday's perfect record was a feather in the cap for Searle, who took bragging rights alongside assistant coach Tom Zampaglione.
“They were only two (wins) from three last year — one of my best mates (Dean Walton) coached them last year and he was bragging about that,” Searle said.
“I said to him ‘mate, one better — I got three from three’.
“I think in the first game, we were quite convincing winners over the top of them.
“It’s one of those round robin competitions where by the time they get to the final, they’re pretty exhausted.
“They did really well to hang on and actually win in the final, considering they’d already played two games before and were pretty exhausted."
Held at Bendigo’s Mercy Junortoun Sports Precinct, GMWGL’s under-18s got off to a flyer in the condensed, 40-minute games.
Searle’s girls trumped NEBFFL 4.7 (31) to 2.5 (17) in the opener before a direct turnaround saw them topple CVFL by 16 points.
Having played two games in two hours with little rest, it was no mean feat for the squad in navy and teal to do it all over again.
But they did.
“Look it was pretty even; I actually think they (NEBFFL) might’ve even bounced out and were in front in the first half,” Searle said.
“But we made a couple of changes and, certainly going into the second half of the final, we made a couple more changes.
“It actually steadied the ship quite nicely and the girls were able to play over the top of them and finally get the win.”
Echuca United’s Jerrah Caruso was named best-on-ground in the final, while Searle singled out the efforts of fellow Eagles Harper Delamere and Sage Dennis as well as Holly Egan (Shepparton United) and Charlotte Artavilla (Barooga).
While the carnival was a roaring success on the results front for the under-18 girls, the smiles shared during the event rubber stamped it as one for the books.
“It was a lot of fun; I suppose that was the mantra for the day,” Searle said.
“They’d got that far, they’d been a credit to themselves and their clubs that they’d been selected and were playing in interleague — and that’s the whole 24 that we took with us.
“I said look you’ve come this far, let’s enjoy it.
“If you enjoy yourselves, you’re likely to play better football and I just want you to have fun ... the more they enjoyed it, the better they got.
“I’d also like to acknowledge Sam Heron — if it hadn’t been for her efforts, I don’t think this would’ve got up.”
The GMWGL senior side didn’t touch the same heights as the under-18s but still gave it a good shake at the interleague carnival.
Kate Chapman’s squad bowed out in both of the pool games, defeated 5.1 (31) to 1.1 (7) by CVFL and 1.4 (10) to 0.2 (2) by NEBFFL.
