The tournament begun well on friday night with a win against Collingwood 33 - 18. The girls were a bit rusty but made it through and played quite well.
Saturday saw a close win against Wallan 25-23 followed by a great win over Nunawading 23-11. We knew Nunawading was the team to beat and to win so easily was a surprise. The girls were then up against the Vic Metro Girls ID which is an intelletually disabled team just back from a tour of Portugul. This game didn't count towards the final placings so it was a good game to finish the day with. The game was at a slower than usual pace which unnerved our girls a bit and they ended up losing by a couple of points. It was played in a very friendly and thoughtfull manner and we were all proud of how our team conducted themselves.
Sunday morning saw a win aginst Etham 34-20 and we were in the Semi-finals. Naturally the first lot of hot weather happens during the tournament and the day got hotter and hotter but luckily the semi's were at Slater Reserve where there is air conditioning. After thinking that Samara wouldn't make the game in time she arrived just before tip off - thank goodness. It was a very hard fought game and we ended up winning 34-12. Sometimes everything goes your way and the girls were terrific.
So then to the grand final game which was at 9.15 at Eltham against Nunawading. To say it was a very different game to the one the day before is an understatement. The first half saw us down 17 - 4. The 4 points were only scored in the last couple of minutes of the first half! Anne Fisher as coach had to try and get the girls focussed and she did. The second half was a lot better but we ended up losing 34-20. Some of the girls were dissapointed with the loss but they had actually won five out of six games over the weekend which is the same amount of games as Nunawading. It was only that Nunawading won the last game.
The tournament is a great way to get the season started after the Christmas break and Anne tried out different offensive and defensive plays which is difficult to do during an actual season. The girls were all fantastic and it is a very well balanced team. Under the great coaching of Anne I am sure they will go a long way this year and learn a lot in the process.
Thanks to all the Mums and Dad's who came to all the games and helped out with the scoring. It is fantastic to have such a great lot of parents involved with the team.
Thanks to the team Grace Dungey, Hannah Levin, Sarah Looby, Whitney Zhou, Miranda Ludekens, Samara Griffiths, Alex McLennan, Kate McKimmie
Helen Black
Team Manager 18.2 Girls
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