CITY West completed an improbable back-to-back mission with victory in the Victorian Netball League grand final last week.
The Falcons have been a powerhouse of the state’s top netball league since their formation five years ago. They have won nine of a possible 15 premierships across all three grades, 19-and-under, division 1 and championship.
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But Falcons coach Marg Lind rates Wednesday’s 44-41 win over Peninsula Waves at the State Netball and Hockey Centre as the best of the lot.
“To be perfectly honest, at the start of the season, we didn’t think we’d be here,” Lind told the Weekly. “We were talking top four as a bonus.
“As we went further and further along, I thought we gained momentum and got better as a unit, so we kind of changed our opinion of what we were capable of.”
The Falcons had a target on their back as defending champions – a tag that seemed to fit well.
They were supposed to struggle in the absence of their bookends, goal- shooter Kathleen Knott and goal- keeper Peta Fay.
Knott missed the season with a knee injury, while Fay was on maternity leave for most of the campaign.
Youngster Demi Woodlock was struck down with illness.
The Falcons were also hit hard by the representative season, with their most talented players taken away for training camps and competition.
But the longer the season wore on, the stronger the Falcons got.
Lind started to believe a second premiership in a row was possible on the night of May 22, when the Falcons beat local rivals VU-Western Lightning by a goal in a nailbiter.
At the time, the Lightning had 36 points, the Falcons had 28 and were in danger of sliding out of the top four.
“This is probably the best final for me because we overcame a lot of obstacles this season,” Lind said.
“Just keeping their heads in it was really difficult. I honestly thought we wouldn’t get there.”
The grand final was a real tug-of -war. The Falcons settled better, with goaler Julia Knott hammering in the open three goals, but that lead was erased by quarter-time.
The Waves raced to the biggest lead of the game, five goals, early in the second but were reeled in and an arm wrestle ensued.
The window of opportunity, as Lind put it, would not come for the Falcons until 10 minutes to go with scores locked at 35 each.
The Waves had possession on the sideline and forward momentum but were halted in their tracks by young Falcons wing defence Chloe Watson, who stuck out her long arms and retrieved the ball mid-air for a critical turnover.
The Falcons took it back to the other end of the court and scored, not once, not twice, but three times, a turning point in a close game.
“We kind of discussed waiting for the window to open, which it did for one minute in that last quarter,” Lind said. “We got the three-goal break and that was it. Game over.”
Knott landed the big shots in the last quarter, while goal attack Maggie Lind offered the spacing, dragging her opponent away from the circle.
The wing attack/centre was the link in the chain in the mid-court and someone who had the hand in the cookie jar when the Waves wanted to launch attacks of their own.
The big question is whether Lind will return next season to spearhead the Falcons’ quest for a three-peat?
“I’m not going anywhere,” she said.
Meanwhile, City West Falcons comfortably won the 19-and-under grand final 48-38 over Yarra Valley Grammar Ariels.
Falcons goal attack Andrea Tai was the player of the finals.
