Tara Murray
The future is bright for Spotswood in the Western Region Football League women’s division 1 competition.
After winning the 2019 premiership, the Wolves turned over nearly their whole list as COVID-19 changed a lot of people’s priorities.
With a young line up heading into 2022, the Wolves saw this year as a rebuilding season. Despite this, the Wolves would just fall short of claiming a second straight premiership, losing to Caroline Springs in Saturday’s grand final.
The Lakers won 8.9 (57)-2.7 (19) to claim their first women’s premiership.
For Wolves co-coach Ian Allen there’s a lot of positives to take out of the grand final and the season as a whole. Allen coached the side this year with Chris Grant, with the duo having success with junior girls sides at the club.
“It was a great effort from our girls,” he said. “They had a great season to even get into the grand final.
“It was only one quarter that was the difference. They [Caroline Springs] are a well structured side and they played a good game of football.
“They deserved to win and create to them as they were the best team all year. We gave it our best and fell short.”
Allen said they were thrilled with how the first half played out with the work rate and effort where it needed to be.
He said it was just a small period of play that would prove costly.
“It’s funny how grand finals work,” he said. “There’s no room for errors and just in the third quarter the first 10 minutes was make or break in the game.
“To our girls’ credit we fought through it and had a couple of good opportunities in the third quarter.
“If we had pegged back a couple instead of scoring behinds it could have been a different story.”
Allen said the Lakers were able to kick away late to seal the win.
Tamsyn Kirk kicked both of the Wolves goals.
Caroline Hardeman and Kerrie Clarke were named their best.
Allen knows this will only make the team better going forward.
“We have a really young side and are in a rebuilding stage,” he said. “There were only two girls from our 2019 premiership side that played in the grand final.
“Over two years makes a huge difference with player turnover. For us to even make the grand final is short of a fantastic effort.
“We could not be prouder and there’s a lot of positives going forward. We’ve learned a lot and we will be more hungry moving forward.”
In the division 2 women’s grand final, Point Cook Centrals claimed the premiership, beating Caroline Springs.
After a nervous start, which saw the Sharks miss their first six shots on goal, they were steady and were able to take control of the game.
The Sharks would build the lead throughout, winning 9.8 (62)-4.1 (25).
Mary Daw was awarded the best on ground medal.
