WPL: Camberwell 5 def. Essendon 2
Sunday 17 September 2023
The WPL Grand Final
CHC V Essendon
Game Time 2.00pm
We were there early enough on a bright, sunny and quite warm start to the afternoon.
Pre-game talk in the room with the Coach doing the briefest pre-game talk this season. The buzz and anticipation was palpable. Adrenalin running at a million miles an hour but nerves not evident – the players were just keen to get out to warm up; and then get to the start whistle to showcase their talents, tenacity, terrific skills and tear through their opponents.
Q.1.
A fast and furious start from the opening whistle. Essendon got a run toward goal very early and earned a stroke which was converted into to a goal at the 3rd minute of the game. We won't talk about that aberration any further. From then on CHC settled into their rhythm and started to dominate but without a chance at goal before the quarter’s end.
Q.2.
Again a furious pace from the whistle, but this time CHC was running the show. The CHC players carried the ball toward goal with pace and smart wide passing, finally being carried by Jo Peeters to the RHS edge of the D and beautifully crossed to Krissy Bates in the centre. KB then did a 180* turn to rocket a reverse toma into the LHS of the goal giving the G/K no chance. GOAL 1. Crowd comes alive!
3 minutes later at the 23 minute mark, there was a sublime pass to Sierra Lee at near inside top of the circle. Sierra carried it a little further in and evading the charging G/K, made her shot count. Beautiful work and great goal. GOAL 2. Crowd now starting to scent blood – noise level is huge.
Ball back to the centre of the pitch and no sooner did the game restart than CHC carries the ball goalwards and earns a PC. Jo Peeters steps up to claim the right of the goal shot. And another JP absolute rocket goes into the net at the bottom LHS. Goalie nowhere to be seen……..that’s because she was given a yellow card and so was sitting this PC out. GOAL 3. Crowd is at full cry. (I’m getting goosebumps again just writing this!).
Umm, Essendon you ask? Nowhere to be seen this quarter! Not a happy cohesive team such as is ours.
Q.3.
At the start an Essendon back rockets a ball down the line to absolutely no-one at all, just over the backline. ‘Hmm’ thinks the sideline – ‘is that because the opposition players energy is rapidly fading’??
CHC again takes control and at the 42 minute mark, CHC is awarded a stroke for an infringement. This one we will talk about. Krissy Bates steps up to the dot and at the umpire's whistle slots a beautiful goal with the ball going into goal on the lower left side. GOAL 4. The CHC supporters raises their noise to another quite significant level.
The quarter was not yet done for us. A mere 4 minutes later, we earned another PC. Great injection of the ball to the top of the D, with the receiver delivering a quick and accurate pass to Hazuki Yuda loitering with deadly intent close to the LHS goalpost. Perfectly received and a silky smooth shot into goal. GOAL 5. I can’t hear myself think such is the volume of noise from the CHC crowd.
Q.4
CHC dominance was near complete and most of the opposition knew it. We played to our plan and it worked mostly. Essendon got their 2 nd goal for the match at the 58 minute mark. Shortly thereafter the wonderful CHC supporters on the hill took up the chant “CAMBER WELL, CAMBER WELL, CAMBER WELL” Stirring for us, shoulder slumping for the opposition. And so it went until the final whistle.
The players ran to each other jumped and hugged. Celebration time. The Song was sung with incredible gusto . The players received their rightful ovation from the supporters. Hugs. High fives.
Excitement at a premium.
Eventually HV was able to do their ceremony and the players were awarded their medals as winners plus Krissy Bates also got awarded the ‘player of the match’ medal.
We have the Cup;
We have the bragging rights for a year;
We have a great team which broke the Club’s 21 year drought in winning the WPL GF.
We had older members of the women’s section live-streaming at home whist wearing the colours.
We had other players of ours doing the same from overseas.
We had great supporters in large crowds on the hill and in the stand.
We had a full house of parents in the change room post game
All in all, CHC has a great WPL team with superb players. We have a great coaching cohort. We have THE most supportive Club committees and Board and members.
I am so very proud of this team. Just a wonderful group of players whom I admire greatly.
Lastly…….in order to go back to back WPL winners- a team has to win the first GF.
We’ve done that!
Next year is going to be even more fun.