Tara Murray
The momentum is growing as Darley aims for its first Ballarat Netball League A-grade premiership.
The Devils A-grade side and under-19s both won their preliminary finals on Saturday to secure grand final spots.
For the club, it’s a massive result with their netball teams and the club, having had little success on the court.
Devils coach Di McCormack said this was bigger than the netball side of the club.
The club’s last premiership was an A-grade premiership in the Riddell District Netball League back in 1992. They’ve never made a Ballarat Netball League grand final previously.
“There’s a lot of joy and happiness,” she said. “With only the girls left in finals, it’s a really big deal and everyone is getting around us.”
The A-grade side sealed their grand final spot by beating Redan, 47-31. The Devils jumped out of the blocks and were able to keep the lead throughout.
McCormack said it wasn’t their best game, but the playing group was able to stick to the plan.
All ten players were able to get on court, with the three bench players coming on in the last couple of minutes of the game.
“Redan played a lot better than they did against North Ballarat having watched the replay,” McCormack said.
“They were tenacious at the ball and their shooting was a lot better. Grace Markovic and Tilly Elliot were outstanding early for us.
“They just kept getting their hands on the ball. We never felt like the game wasn’t in our control.”
McCormack said their flow down the court wasn’t as good as it could have been, but with Redan a heavily penalised team the game was very stop-start.
She said despite that everyone played well.
Rebecca Hicks shot all but one of the Devils goals. McCormack said goal attack Monique Nagle played a massive role.
“We were trying to draw them off Bec,” she said. “Mon did a lot of work around the circle and tried to open it up for Bec who was often double teamed.
“Mon worked her butt off to try and shut down the goal defence the other way too, as she’s their main ball driver.”
The win came after the under-19s beat Sebastopol earlier in the day, 37-33.
McCormack said it was the best game she had coached this year.
“They were spectacular,” she said. “We lost to them by five goals and 10 goals.
“We talked about the game plan and we executed it to a tee. We never looked like we were going to lose.”
This year was the first year that the Devils under-19s had made finals.
Both teams now face North Ballarat in the grand final on Saturday in Ballarat.
McCormack said they would take confidence into both games.
“We beat them in the last round with a full team,” McCormack. “The only player they were missing in both games was Poppy Douglas.
“We’re sure we will match up with both of them. We just need to stay calm across the court.
“We need to play our game.”
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