Tara Murray
Werribee Centrals’ second half comeback fell just short in the Geelong and District Netball League grand final on Saturday.
Aiming for their sixth A-grade premiership since 2013, the Centurions found themselves trailing in the low scoring affair with East Geelong.
They were able to get the margin back to one goal late in the fourth quarter, but the final whistle put a halt to the run and their premiership dreams.
East Geelong won their first A-grade premiership, 24-23.
Centrals shooter Ellie Tubbs said the game was a very tight defensive game, which reflected in the final score.
“It’s a disappointing result to lose by only one goal,” she said.
“It was a low scoring game and it was just a testament to how the game was played. It wasn’t goal for goal and at one stage we were down by seven or eight goals.”
Tubbs said it was goal keeper Amanda O’Malley who kept them in the game, with a lot of key stops at the defensive end.
“She kept us in the game for sure,” Tubbs said. “If we had a couple more minutes we would have been in for a shot of winning.
“We were playing our best netball during that period of the game.”
O’Malley was awarded the best on court medal despite being in the losing team.
Tubbs said they were proud of their season despite falling short in the grand final.
“We’re proud of our history as a whole,” she said.
“To finish in fourth place after playing inconsistent netball most of the year.
“We found some good consistency come final time and played all these elimination finals.
“To keep on winning them was an achievement.”
It wasn’t all bad news for the Centurions with their under-19s claiming the premiership 28-17.
Tubbs said the work that group had put in was massive.
She said the team under Tara Parker had to deal with a number of byes with club’s not having teams.
“They had an undefeated season and undefeated finals campaign,” she said. “They couldn’t have had a better season.
“They did a great job and they played together like clockwork.
“It’s a new division the GDNL has included in the last few years. It’s positive for the club as they’re our next netballers coming through and hopefully we’ll win a few more A-grade premierships with them coming through.”
In senior football, Bannockburn beat Inverleigh, 13.9 (87)-12.11 (83) to claim the premiership.
It was a low scoring first three quarters before the game opened up in the final quarter.
Inverleigh kicked seven goals to six in the final quarter, but fell short by four points.
