MOUNT EVELYN – WOMENS SEASON REVIEW

By Alyce Collett

After what at times was a topsy – turvy season, Mt Evelyn Women’s Team came so close but were ultimately not able to achieve what they set out to do at the start of the year. 

After coming runner up last season, this year they were aiming to go one better. 

Things did not go quite to plan first up, losing to Chirnside Park by 61 points. They bounced back the following week, emphatically defeating Waverley Blues by 57 points. 

Round three saw a tight loss to Whitehorse Suns, before a win in round four in the grand final rematch against Vermont. A 14 point loss to Donvale was followed by back to back wins against Blackburn and Bayswater. 

Mt Evelyn then suffered two losses on the trot (with a bye in the middle) before recovering to record a massive upset to defeat the previously undefeated Chirnside Park. Things came crashing back to Earth rather quickly after that with a narrow loss to Vermont before they bounced back to beat Donvale and Bayswater.   

At the end of the season, Mt Evelyn finished fourth on the ladder. They finished one game behind third placed Blackburn but two games clear of fifth placed Donvale. 

This position left them playing off in an Elimination Final against Blackburn. They lead by a small margin at every break to in the end beat Blackburn by only three points. 

The following week saw them up against Whitehorse Suns for a spot in the Grand Final. Mt Evelyn found themselves down by 14 points at three quarter time, and although they outscored Whitehorse in the final term, still found themselves three points short at the final siren.

This season it could be argued that Mt Evelyn’s premiership quarter was not the third as the old saying goes, but the first. Mt Evelyn’s first quarters for the most part were an indicator into how the matches have ended up. 

In the first half of the season, the majority of the time it was a case of if at quarter time Mt Evelyn are leading or level with their opposition and the opponent’s score was lower than 10 points, Mt Evelyn ended up winning the match. 

The second half of the season didn’t quite see the same pattern, but there were elements of similarity. 

In the second half of the season, Mt Evelyn has a lot of very low scoring opening quarters. In four of the six matches, they didn’t kick more than a goal, and in three of those games they lost. They won both games that they kicked more than ten points in the opening term. 

Mt Evelyn’s two finals matches were a completely different equation. 

In the Semi Final, inaccurate kicking was for once a positive thing. At every break, both sides had the same number of goals, but Mt Evelyn had a few more behinds, which in the end meant they got the win. 

In the Preliminary Final, Mt Evelyn were less than half of Whitehorse’s score at the first break and were really playing catch up after that. Although they almost ran over the op of them in the last quarter, they ultimately came up short.

On an individual note, the top goal kicker for Mt Evelyn was Isobel Urquhart, who finished with a tally of 13 goals for the year. The highest individual game tally with Georgia Ploegsma’s three against Bayswater.