Williamstown won the defensive battle to keep its Victorian Football League women’s season alive.
It’s do or die for the Seagulls for the rest of the season having finished the regular season in fifth spot.
They started their finals campaign on the road against the Sandringham Zebras on Saturday.
It wasn’t an easy battle but the Seagulls did enough to come away with the win and seal a semi final spot, winning 2.6 (18)-0.6 (6).
Seagulls coach Liam Cavanagh said it was a bit of an arm wrestle.
“We hit the front and then it became a pretty defensive game,” he said. “It was hard for us to keep executing what we wanted to.
“We were really happy with how we defended and to keep them goalless was nice. It’s a bit of a credential for our backline.
“They did such a good job with the team defence. It wasn’t the perfect game by any means, but we were able to fight it out.”
Cavanagh said they had worked hard on trying to have a really attacking game and take risks to have a high scoring entertaining game.
He said the Zebras were more a defensive side that liked to put players behind the ball and make it hard for opposition forwards.
That’s exactly what they did on Saturday.
“We got some clean possessions and were able to get enough shots to get the win, so we’ll take it,” he said.
“Two or three of our misses were really gettable. Neve Crowley missed two shots she would normally kick, but nailed one under pressure.
“We never looked like the extra pressure was getting to us. It was nothing we hadn’t felt before.”
Isabelle Khoury was the other goal scorer for the Seagulls.
Cavanagh was full of praise for two of his leaders.
“Ash Thorneycroft had 21 tackles and was huge for us,” he said.
“Emily Eaves had her best game for the year with 23 possessions and nine clearances.
“If she’s not putting her hand up for AFLW, I don’t know what she’s doing.”
Thorneycroft’s continued dominance comes despite announcing that she will be retiring from VFLW at the end of the season.
Cavanagh said they didn’t think they would get her to change her mind for a second straight season on deciding to retire.
“She’s leaving everything out there,” he said. “We could not ask for more from her.”
Cat O’Bryan has also announced she is retiring at season’s end.
Before that, the Seagulls have at least one more match.
They will face North Melbourne Werribee in a knockout semi final on Sunday.
Cavanagh said the playing group were excited to take on the minor premiers.
“You don’t go into a finals series where we don’t play them [if we’re to win],” he said. “We go in there with good form and scoring really well.”
Williamstown’s men’s side, which had the bye, has slipped to 11th heading into the final round.
