Gisborne-Kyneton United’s winning streak has continued with the side the first team through to the Essendon District Football League women’s division 2 grand final.
The standout side in the division 2 competition this season, Gisborne-Kyneton United continued its good form to beat Taylors Lakes on Saturday in the qualifying final, 11.4 (70)-1.3 (9).
Co-coach Phil Hawkes said they weren’t sure what to expect at the start of the season but it wasn’t the season that they’ve had.
“We’re pretty happy with that,” he said. “The Gisborne players knew what the competition was like, but we still didn’t expect to go through undefeated.
“We wanted to have a competitive season, it’s a nice achievement which we would not have expected.”
Hawkes said they had seen the group gel together as the season has progressed and they’ve started to play some of their best football at the right end of the year.
While happy with their form, Hawkes said they were unsure what Taylors Lakes would throw at them.
“We didn’t know if they would make some changes or not,” he said. “We had been hearing some different things.
“It wasn’t the case. We were still pretty confident.”
Hawkes said while finals can be different from the regular season, they tried to make it as normal as possible.
He said there were naturally a few early nerves.
“We told them not to worry that it’s a final and to not focus on the scoreboard and focus on what we had been doing,” he said.
“We didn’t change anything and we looked at doing what we had been doing the last couple of months.
“The last two weeks had been really good and yesterday [Saturday] early in the game, it didn’t click straight away, but we worked into it.
“Taylors Lakes tackling especially in the first half was really strong. About half way through the second quarter they lifted and brought that extra pressure.
“We were able to regroup at half time.”
On the scoreboard, United was able to control the game throughout.
They kicked the only goals for the first three quarters to lead by 60 points at three quarter time.
The Lions threw some things around in the last quarter once the game was over.
Hawkes said it was a pretty good win considering it was a final.
Brooke Cowan kicked four goals for United, while Emma Williams kicked three goals.
Cheyenne Macumber, Teagan Ainslie and Ayesha Nicholson were named United’s best.
United now has the week off before the grand final, with Taylors Lakes to play the Sunbury Kangaroos in the preliminary final.
Hawkes said they would look to train twice this week like normal and it didn’t appear there were any injuries out of the qualifying final win.
Many of the group will be playing off in a third straight grand final, while some will be playing in their first senior grand final which Hawkes said was exciting.
