Tara Murray
Nothing changes for Williamstown as it enters its first Victorian Football League Women’s finals series.
Having built across the season, the Seagulls season was on the line against Geelong in the final round of the season.
A win meant the side would play finals for the first time, a loss meant they were relying on other results and ultimately would have resulted in them missing out.
Coach Liam Cavanagh couldn’t be happier with what the group has done this season. He said they had exceeded expectations in making finals.
“It is good, a bit of relief,” he said. “We’ve pretty much played five, six elimination finals and it’s nice to know have to worry about it any more.
“In the pre-season we talked a lot about outcomes and being a team. Premiership standards and talking about what we wanted to achieve.
“Since round one we haven’t spoken about outcomes, it’s been about the processes and it’s set a foundation of belief in the group.
“We’re pragmatic that you’re not going to get every result, but the first step was putting success as something that is achievable.”
On Saturday, Williamstown faced Geelong in the first game of the round. A win for the Cats would have meant they played finals instead.
Cavanagh said it was nice to get the match out of the way early and have their fate in their own hands.
The Seagulls started the game the better of the two sides and led at the first two breaks. They set up the win in the third quarter, leading by 27 points at the last break.
The Cats came home hard, but the Seagulls were able to steady with two final quarter goals to seal the 8.3 (51)-5.7 (37) win.
Cavanagh said while it wasn’t their best performance, they were able to find what they needed to late to get the win.
“We did a lot of work early to control the tempo of the game,” he said.
“The first half we didn’t play our best football, we were a bit nervous. The third quarter was fantastic and we were able to put Geelong away.
“They threw everything at us in the last quarter, we got a couple of goals to steady. They didn’t die wondering. We take a few lessons out of there.”
Cavanagh said Sarah Cameron was their best player, kicking three goals in the win.
The goals were enough to seal the leading goal kicker award.
“She was fantastic and it’s good to see her get the reward,” Cavanagh said. “To stand up and kick three goals for us split across the day and in really clutch moments.”
He said Jasmine Kawa and Emily Eaves also stood out in the midfield, while acting captain Eliza Stafford was good in her return to the side.
The Seagulls will face Carlton in the first week of finals. The Seagulls have had two good wins against them so far this season.
For Cavanagh nothing changes this week.
“We will go into this week not expecting anything to be different,” he said.
“For us we want to keep it as normal as possible. It’s another game and there’s the same amount of pressure on the result
“Carlton are a really strong opposition and we won’t come in expecting an easy game.”
