Macedon held its composure and showed its class to make it back-to-back premierships in the Riddell District Football League women’s competition.
The best team all the season, all the pressure was on the Cats heading into Saturday night’s grand final with Riddell. The Cats last loss came back in the 2023 grand final.
The Bombers in their first season had been the surprise packet of the competition and had nothing to lose heading into the grand final.
It was the Cats’ night on Saturday night as they led from start to finish in the 6.12 (48)-1.3 (9) win.
Co-coach Chris Nolan said it was a pretty special moment for the group.
“It was good, hopefully a good spectacle for the Riddell league as well,” he said. “We spoke about it during the week, we knew that Riddell and Lancefield and everyone comes pretty hard at us.
“It was more about how we absorb that and how we turn that into enough to hold sway and we felt that we did in the first half.
“Ten minutes camped in our front half in quarter one before it crossed the middle, quarter two similar amount of time.
“That is what we set our game up on, field position and time in front half and tonight [Saturday] the girls did it again.”
The Cats dominated the first half and with 10 scoring shots to two at half time probably should have been more than 28 points ahead.
Nolan said goalkicking had been an issue at times during the season but they were pretty happy with how it was tracking.
“We have an indicator of four to five scores a quarter roughly,” he said. “We generally know that if we hit the scoreboard enough and own the front half, we can hold sway.
“We were inaccurate again… but general play and all the things that matter outside of the scoreboard we probably dominated.”
The margin got out to 45 points at the final break with the Cats having secured their second straight premiership with a quarter to go.
After last season’s grand final against Kyneton was a thriller, Nolan and he and co-coach Bevan Uren wanted to make sure there would be no final quarter jitters this time.
While the Bombers won the final quarter, the Cats were never in danger.
“At three quarter time we wanted to make sure they were making memories and have some fun,” Nolan said.
“We got some people on the ground and enjoyed the last 10 minutes as they had done the work.
“We speak about doing the hard stuff early; it gets easier at the back end.”
Charlotte Noonan kicked three goals for the Cats much to the delight of Cats fans who followed the forward line from one end to the other.
Shakira Parker was the other multiple goal kicker with two goals.
Midfielder Ruby Watts was awarded the best on ground medal by the umpires.
Nolan said he felt Watts, who won last year’s league best and fairest award, had got better this season.
“She is a ripper Ruby,” he said. “She went to half back every quarter and it’s something we’ve tried to help holistically as a squad.
“She’s getting a lot of touches in positions on the field that she never once did.”
Taya Konias and Lilli Collins were others named in the best. Both are part of the next generation for the club.
While many players were celebrating back-to-back premierships, one who was playing in her first premiership was Tamara Collins.
Collins gave up her spot in last year’s grand final for someone else having played in 2023.
“She tried again to sit out for someone this week,” Nolan said. “She was also reluctant to go back on there.
“Macedon women’s doesn’t happen without Tamara Collins.
“It was important for us to, one have her play and two have her out there at the final siren.”
Nolan said while the side capped off a perfect season it hadn’t been an easy one with him and Uren also involved in the men’s program.
He said it’s taken a lot of people to get where they are and the playing group deserves a lot of recognition.
