The Sunbury Lions rolled with the punches but were still able to do enough to secure a second straight Ballarat Netball League grand final spot on Saturday.
The top side all season, the Lions battled hard against North Ballarat on Saturday afternoon in a semi final.
North showed it was up for the fight and pushed the Lions the whole game.
Scores were level at quarter time with North leading by one goal at half time.
It was the Lions by one goal at the last break.
The Lions managed to find a way in the last quarter to come away with a 59-55 win and that much wanted grand final spot.
Lions coach Kim Bailey said it was just about making sure they got the win and locked in a grand final spot.
“We’re through to another grand final, but we’re limping to the line,” she said. “We had to change what we do and we had people playing out of position for the first time this season.
“We managed to get it done.”
After batting availability issues throughout the season, the Lions thought the worst had been behind them.
It wasn’t the case, with defender Elly Randall breaking her arm mid-week causing an on court reshuffle.
“Elly fell over going to get coffee and broke her arm in two places,” Bailey said. “She’ll have surgery this week.”
Eliza Gollant had to move back into goalkeeper, while captain Tayla Honey moved from the midcourt to goal defence.
Honey hurt her leg, which she hurt last season, in the second quarter and battled through the game.
Rebecca Hicks shot 45 goals for the Lions, but it was goal attack Caitlin Hill that really impressed Bailey in the win.
“Caitlin was outstanding and stepped up to the mark,” she said. “Her work rate through the mid court was good and she was really accurate.”
Bailey said that was the best performance she’d seen from North Ballarat this season.
She said they were riding a wave of emotion as they look to send off multiple premiership winning coach Annie McCartin on a winning note.
“They were a different team and had done their homework,” she said. “They really pushed us and credit to North Ballarat.”
Bailey said the week off would help Honey, while goaler Tara O’Grady is back from overseas and will be available to play.
She said they would look at a number of different combinations that could possibly be used come grand final day in the absence of Randall.
It was a good day for the Lions netballers, with four sides straight through to the grand final. B-grade, D-grade and E-grade join the A-grade side in the grand final.
C-grade will play off in a preliminary final this Saturday, while the under-19s were knocked out in terrible conditions on Sunday morning.
Bailey said it was really exciting for the club.
“Hopefully we can get four or five premierships this year rather than just two,” she said.
