Sport
9 August, 2023
Bloods Grand Final bound
THE Terang Mortlake Bloods U18 girls shrugged off a slow start to seal their first Grand Final berth this weekend.
THE Terang Mortlake Bloods U18 girls shrugged off a slow start to seal their first Grand Final berth this weekend.
The girls will vie for the Western Victoria Female Football League premiership in Warrnambool on Sunday against league powerhouse South Warrnambool.
The path to success has not come easily for the Bloods.
Through the 2022 season the girls only managed to find themselves leading at the final siren in the first week. Amid the slew of losses, the resolve of the roster, an emphasis on improvement steadily began to yield results.
The losing margins began to decline, and the girls began to build their confidence.
The 2023 campaign got off to an even slower start with the girls losing their first three games of the season, but you can always seem to count on not counting the Bloods out.
A cascade of success saw the team win eight of the remaining nine games through the regular season, six of which were wins with a margin of victory more than 20 points.
The young team had found their feet, and comfortably overcame Warrnambool Blues and Horsham to earn their spot in the Grand Final.
The girls were all smiles at training on Monday evening as they worked through drills building upon the strong elimination and preliminary finals performances of the weeks prior.
Bloods captain Sophie Curran said there was a sense of excitement building among the team.
“We’re all very keen, very excited,” she said.
“It’s something we’ve all looked forward to and wanted to happen, so to finally get there this year after not doing very well in the past is a credit to the team.”
Curran credited the success of the team to a culture of comradery, noting a rapid improvement in each player individually but also their willingness to buy-in to a team-first mentality.
“You could pick out any player and see the improvements they have made,” she said.
“We’re doing really well and have come a long way and we’re working better as a team.
“I think that’s what has got us this far.
“We all get along very well, we could all go get lunch together and have a great time.”
Curran acknowledged South Warrnambool, the reigning premiers who remain undefeated this season, would prove a difficult opponent but felt the improvements the Bloods had made showed they can be competitive with anyone.
After the Bloods endured a scoreless, 68-point drubbing at the hands of South Warrnambool in round one, the girls bounced back to face a narrow 4.5.29 to 4.2.26 loss in round eight.
“I think we can definitely do it because even since (round eight) we’ve improved so much,” Curran said.
“We just have to do our best on the day and see where that takes us.”
Assistant coach Alison Kenna said it was a proud moment for the girls to give Terang Mortlake its first WVFFL grand final appearance.
“It’s been five years in the making and the girls have come along in leaps and bounds, so we’re really proud and really happy for them,” she said.
Kenna said the tight-knit group of players were embracing the club’s mentality of, above all, having fun. In the process of enjoying themselves, a struggling team fought their way to grand finalists.
“You could see some of them nervous at their first training or first game, but now you see them walking out with a smile on their face,” she said.
“They’re getting to know girls from different towns; we service Terang and Mortlake but also Cobden, Camperdown and surrounding areas.
“If it wasn’t for the connection they have here a lot of them may not have encountered each other, so that’s a positive which comes out of this.
“We’re enjoying watching them grow their confidence with each other.”
Team manager Noel McConnell said he had watched the group come to view each other as a family, growing rapidly both as players and people.
“It’s a big turnaround from last year, and they deserve it,” he said.
“We’ve got big numbers at training every week with girls turning up two nights a week and working on their skills and game plan.”
Coach Nathan Jones said he was proud of the work the girls had put in to earn their spot in the final.
“I’m excited for the girls and excited for the club, being our first grand final since starting in 2019,” he said.
“They got their first finals appearance a few years ago but didn’t win that, so I’m just happy for the girls and the supporters.
“There has been a fair bit of hard work training two nights a week, but the results are starting to pay off.”
Jones said the success the girls were experiencing had been credit to their attention-to-detail and willingness to learn.
“You give them some information or coaching advice and they just take it on board,” he said.
“The girls have been really receptive and wanting to improve, but we’ve said all along that if you come along to have fun and develop then the results will take care of themselves.
“We’re obviously doing something right and we’ve got a good culture, and a good leadership group.
“We’ve done the hard years early on, Noel McConnell has set up a really strong foundation, and people coming in feel welcome.”
Jones said his message on game day won’t be any different to what it has been all along: have fun.
“South Warrnambool have been up the top since they’ve been in the competition, we want to try and follow a similar pathway in terms of their development, their program and their culture,” he said.
“We’re going to try our hardest, we know we’re going in underdogs, but we know our best footy can match with them and we’ve proved that this year.
“We played a really good last quarter in the prelim, so we want to carry that through to this week.
“We’ve had a really good couple of weeks at practice, the girls have been there and attentive to try and fine tune our style of play, so everything is starting to click – so we’ll go in with the same philosophy; have fun, and if we play as well as we can, the result will take care of itself.”
Jones said he had been impressed by the level of support the team had received throughout the community.
The ribbons and banners started going up throughout Terang and Mortlake this week, but the girls were not lacking in support during the season.
“We’ve had a lot of support from parents putting their hands up to help, they’re in the locker rooms after games and we’ve had plenty of people cheering for them on game day, which I think a couple of times has got them over the line.”
The Bloods U18 girls will take on South Warrnambool from 12.00pm this Sunday, August 13 at Reid Oval.
