NAB 2010 Grand Final Preview - Mahoney Park
There will also be an exhibition of Youth Girls
Football at 11am, as players from the Illawarra Youth Girls Competition will be travelling to Sydney to demonstrate their talent in a scratch match before the Grand
Final. The players will be coming from the Kiama Power Club, Northern
Districts Tigers Club and Albion Park Crows Club as well as some Under 18 Players playing in SWAFL such as Emma Brown and Brittany Day who are from the Western Wolves and Southern Power clubs respectively. Please come early and see the stars of tomorrow. We need volunteers to do some goal umpiring so please contact Lisa Roper if you are interested.
The BBQ will be in operation and on behalf of everyone in SWAFL, we hope to see you there.
This is destiny day, only one club by 3:30pm will be deemed the 2010 champions and for another, wondering what might have been.
In one corner, Newtown Breakaways (Premiers: 2002,
2003, 2004, 2005, 2009; Runners Up: 2006) the most illustrous club in
the competition with finals appearances in every year of their
participation. The Breakaways have two players from the AFL High
Performance Academy in Natalie Redford and Roxy McGee. It's interesting
to note that the Breakaways have some of the most experienced and
inexperienced players in the competition in terms of games played. Can
the Breakaways go back-2-back? Only their 2002-2005 team have been the
only teams in SWAFL history who have been able to climb the mountain
again.
In the other corner, Balmain Dockers (Runners Up:
2008) in their second grand final appearance in three years. They have
been the undefeated team in the home and away competition but came a
cropper in the major semi-final before finding their compass in the
preliminary final against Sydney University. With an exciting midfield,
they'll be looking for big performances from their superstar
full-forward Belinda Pride who must be close to 110 goals after scoring 6
on the weekend against Sydney University. Can the Dockers create their
own history and be the first team from Balmain to be premiers and be
legends forever?
We expect hopefully fine weather conditions on the
day which will benefit both teams as the wet invariably makes the ball
slippery and more prone to being kicked off the ground.
Dockers Coach Tracey Kick was a bit cagey on not
letting too much information be released to the wider footy public but
briefly said that the loss the previous week had focused the mind of
the Dockers especially any players who thought the premiership was a
given but form had shown that the Dockers had won 2 out of 3 matches
against the Breakaways this year.
Breakaways Coach Darren Lewtas about to conduct a
light training session with the team was a bit more open, saying that
the Grand Final was a accumulation of the journey together with the team.
He paid tribute to the players especially the older players who had
warmly opened up to the new players and not formed a clique within the
team. He thought the team had jelled well together and that the previous
matches especially the Wollongong match between the two clubs was
basically the team finding it's feet together. In his word, the
Breakaways had followed simple team rules and that "Discipline creates
results" and the proof was in the pudding last weekend. His hardest job
this week would be informing the unlucky players who would not be part
of the playing 24 but will still contribute to victory as either
water-runners or supporters.
We wish all the officials well in their final game of the season and thank them for their officiating during the season.
Last Modified on 30/09/2010 11:47