Sarah Mollison is the undisputed best player in Lacrosse Victoria women’s state league.
The Footscray captain was a runaway winner at the league’s best-and-fairest count, finishing seven votes clear of Newport premiership stars Marlee Paton and Rachel Kirchheimer.
But Mollison would trade places with Paton and Kirchheimer in a heartbeat.
The midfielder insists the MVP award is no substitute for a premiership … it doesn’t replace the hollow feeling left by close grand final losses two years in a row.
“Winning a grand final would’ve been nicer,” Mollison told Star Weekly. “It was absolutely shattering to lose the grand final.”
She concedes her side was beaten by the better team on the day but believes Footscray’s preparation was badly interrupted.
A number of players were preoccupied with national representation at the under-19 World Cup and Rebecca Lane, one of the Bulldogs’ top players, missed the finals after accepting a college scholarship in the US.
Mollison was scathing about Lacrosse Victoria’s decision to combine the state league clubs with A-grade clubs in the first half of the season, leading to lopsided scores and lack of genuine competition for her team until later in the season when the state league teams split.
“It definitely would’ve played a part in us not being successful on grand final day, but Newport had a bit of interruption as well so you can’t use that as an excuse,” she said.
Mollison, 28, has enjoyed a stellar lacrosse career and is keen to share her knowledge of the sport to the next generation.
She is starting a lacrosse camp for talented youngsters this month and has coached the under-age teams at her club for years.
Taking the under-18s to this season’s premiership was the silver lining to Mollison’s grand final day.
“We lost, but my juniors won so it was bittersweet,” she said. “I was happy, I was sad.”
