Werribee Centrals were unstoppable en route to the GDFL A-grade netball minor premiership.
Centrals finished the home-and-away rounds with a flawless 18-0 record after mauling Geelong West 93-13 at Galvin Park on Saturday.
Centrals coach Lina Iuta told Star Weekly that “practice made perfect” for her team.
“They’ve worked so hard week in week out putting plays together and getting our combinations and connections right,” she said.
“From the back line to the front line, we’re scoring off it.”
Werribee Centrals are gunning for a fourth consecutive A-grade premiership.
While all the talk surrounds the potential of a rare four-peat, Iuta sees things differently and believes the speculation is overblown.
“Every premiership is different,” she said.
“This would be our fourth in a row, but we’re not looking at it as our fourth, we’re looking at it as having started over again.
“Every year is different with different players and different structures.
“Yes, being potentially the fourth one, it does have that little spark to it. It keeps us alive, wanting to strive for more, but the girls would be pretty amped up anyway.”
Thomson and Bannockburn seem to have made up some ground on Werribee Centrals this season.
Thomson got the closest to defeating them, losing by five goals on both occasions.
Bannockburn had only one shot at Centrals and was overawed, losing by 13.
Despite the challenges coming thick and fast from inside the top six, Iuta is feeling confident about her team heading into the finals.
“It’s going to be interesting in the finals, but I think our girls have that extra finals experience that they need,” she said. “We’ve got that advantage and we’ll use it.”
Werribee Centrals has the luxury of a rest in week one of the finals.
The Centrals players will still be in attendance to support the lower grade teams who start their finals series.
“This is the third year we’ve had the week off,” Iuta said. “Some say it doesn’t work in your favour, but at the end of the day it’s how you structure it and how you utilise it to benefit your team. We’ll still train and go over a few things. We’ve reached the pinnacle of where we’re at with this team and now it’s just a matter of finishing off.”
