Tara Murray
Darley did what it needed to do as it sealed a second straight Ballarat Netball League grand final berth.
The Devils A-grade team became the club’s fourth netball side to win through to the decider on Saturday, beating Redan in the preliminary final, 35-28.
The four grand finals builds on the two that the club made last year.
Devils coach Di McCormack said from a club perspective they were extremely proud to have four out of the six netball teams into the final match of the year.
“The club is pretty stoked,” she said. “The whole club was there watching. The girls won the footy grand final and the senior [men’s] football and now four netball teams are in the grand final.
“Hopefully we can come home with at least a couple of premierships.”
Favourites heading into the preliminary final, all the pressure was on the Devils with McCormack saying there might have been some nerves from their end early.
While they led throughout the game, McCormack said she never felt like they were playing their best netball.
“It was an ugly game,” she said. “Whether you win like Carlton did on Friday night or how we did, it doesn’t matter.
“We led by seven all day. We were never challenged and it didn’t drop below that number. It didn’t feel like we controlled the game as we had in previous games.”
McCormack said that Redan threw everything at them and changed their shooting combination heading into the game which worked in their favour.
She said all the lucky tips also seemed to go the Lions way, but they were still able to do enough to get the win.
“We did enough to settle throughout the day on court,” she said. “They had nothing to lose, they were the underdogs.
“They gelled better than they did last week and shot a lot better.”
McCormack said the attacking end didn’t flow as smoothly as they would have liked, missing a few shots they would have normally made. Rebecca Hicks led the scoring with 16 goals.
She said Matilda Elliot continued her good form in defence, while Grace Markovic also had a good game.
Ailish McCormack also had a good game in wing attack, setting up a lot of the attacking options.
The Devils now face North Ballarat in the grand final for a second straight year.
North Ballarat won last year’s decider in horrible conditions and the first final between the two teams this year, while the Devils won one match during the season and the other was a draw.
McCormack said they were hoping it would be a good day for the club.
“It’s what you play all season for,” she said.
In the football, North Ballarat won the preliminary final against East Point to lock in a grand final spot against Darley.
The grand finals will be played on Saturday.
