Our women's premiership 2021/22

For the second year in a row the Moonee Valley women’s team was the underdog in the Grand Final – and for the second year in a row we held our nerve and won the match that really counts.

We travelled to Truganina to play top-of-the-ladder Werribee in the Grand Final on March 13, and held them to 108 chasing our total of 115.

Moonee Valley wasn’t even certain at the start of the year we would be able to defend our 2020/21 flag, with a majority of players from last season’s team being unavailable due to injury, moving up country or interstate, or having a baby.

We were probably only a minute away from having to forfeit our first game – and if we fell at this first hurdle we may well have folded for the season. But we got a last-minute conscript from the football club – and the rest is history.

Above right: The winners: L-R: Back - Amber Dylan, Lane Edwards, co-coach Darren Nagle, Sandra Verschoor, Audrey Brown and co-coach Sarah Gooden. Front - Sarah Fenn, Kelsie Armstrong, Tara Newman and Yasmin King. Werribee's last two bats trudge off in the background.

We had a solid rest of the season – a washed-out draw, a forfeit and only one loss – to Werribee who passed us on the fourth ball of the final over.

Our final round of the home and away season was against Greenvale, with the teams locked in to play the semi final the next week and the winner to have the home ground advantage.

We won both – then through to the Grand Final. Unfortunately we lost key player Sandra Verschoor with hamstring and knee injuries from the semi, after having problems with her footing on the wet outfield. We probably shouldn’t have played – but the umpire insisted the game go ahead despite constant drizzle.

With Sandra out, along with regular keeper Adele Walker who tore her hamstring in the Round 8 game, we took to the field in the GF with seven players. And we were without last season’s star Katherine Baker, who was required to play with Essendon.

In this grade we can have a maximum of 10 players, with eight in the field. If you only have seven, the opposition must offer you a sub fielder or else field with seven themselves. Werribee opted for the seven – which played into our hands as we have a group of gun fielders who cover the same amount of ground as eight.

Werribee also chose to play with nine, which limited their batting rotations and restricted when their best bowlers could come back into the attack after everyone else had bowled two overs.

Skipper Tara Newman won the toss for the first time all season and elected to bat.

With co-coaches Darren Nagle and Sarah Gooden prowling the boundary at the Mainview Boulevard ground in Truganina and Charlie Walker at the scorer’s table, we were ever-vigilant as the game progressed.

Opening bats Tara Newman and Sarah Fenn retired after five overs with the score 0/16. No. 4 bat Audrey Brown was bowled by a cracker of a ball with the score on 25, while Yasmin King continued with her aggressive approach – belting a big six as the score progressed from 27 to 45 in the eighth over.

We lost Kelsie Armstrong and Lane Edwards before Yasmin was retired at the end of the 10^th over, with the score at 3/56.

Sarah Fenn returned to the crease and took the score to 69 with Amber Dylan before being bowled in the 15^th over.

Amber retired two balls before the end of the 14^th over. With the fall of Sarah three balls later, Tara Newman and Yasmin King were at the crease for the all-important last five overs.

They took the score from 70 at the end of the 15^th to our total of 4/115 – 45 crucial runs off the last five overs to give us a competitive total which we were confident we could defend. Throughout the 20 overs we had taken on the field with quick singles, particularly anything that the keeper didn’t glove cleanly.

When Werribee went in to bat, wickets were hard to come by – indeed, Kelsie Armstrong took the only wicket of the innings, thanks to a catch from Tara.

Werribee was 1/23 off their first five overs – seven runs better than Moonee Valley at the same stage.

At the 10 over mark they were 1/51, which was five runs behind us at the same stage. Our bowling was tight and the fielders backed up the bowlers.

At the 15-over mark Werribee was back in front on the comparison – 1/76 to our 4/70.

We knew we had to dig deep for the last five overs – and we did. Kelsie bowled a tight over to concede just three runs, and we were back in front in the equation – 1/79 to 4/83.

The Werribee batters took a couple of risks with Audrey Brown’s next over, but we were still four runs in front in the chase.

Werribee needed 27 runs off the last three overs, but Tara Newman (one over) and Yasmin King (2) conceded just 20 of them – and the Premiership was ours.

Werribee scored just three runs from byes, whereas our aggressive running earned us 11. All up they conceded 36 runs in extras, while our disciplined performance with the ball gave up just 20.

They are telling statistics – a big last five overs with the bat, a miserly last three overs with the ball, and a lid on extras. So perhaps Werribee felt the nerves while Moonee Valley held our nerve?

The improvement in last year’s rookie players across the whole season, particularly Tara, Audrey and Kelsie, was remarkable, and they are now genuine matchwinners. Getting Yasmin and Sandra back after Christmas was a big bonus to us, and we saw steady improvement in new players in Sarah, Lane, Amber and Pari Tuli. And Adele was a link to the past – having been part of Moonee Valley’s women’s teams from a decade earlier.

The North West has already flagged that we will be promoted up a grade next season – so bring it on! We’ve got two flags to prove our worth, and a squad of players that’s ready and able to take the next step.