The Newtown Breakaways were the benchmark team of the season. With championship returning coach Jamie Robertson back for one last season on a mission with destiny, she was able to drive a team of determined women to recapture past glory in order to secure the Breakaways 5th title and be known as the "club of the decade". With a superstar lineup including recruiting Roxy McGee and Natasha Devlin, plus some very exciting new players Newtown swept all before them until the Wests and Balmain draws. The draws actually got the Breakaways to step that extra level and not slackening off even though they had pretty much had secured the minor premiership.
However the Major Semi-Final was a game that questioned the Breakaways as a loss put them into the preliminary semi-final where they won narrowly by 3 points after the siren. Going into the Grand Final, I privately predicted that the Wolves would win by 2 points but were forced to eat humble pie as the Breakaways were determined to send their champion retiring players and coach on a high. Although it took the middle of the final quarter for the Breakaways to draw away from the Wolves by 13 points, the Breakaways never doubted themselves in their quest for immortality.
SWAFL congratulates the Newtown club on being the club of the decade, however with at least 5 retirees with over a cumulative thirty years playing experience – the winning tradition of the Breakaways now falls onto a new generation of players such as Verna Iles, Kristy Gallagher, Suzy Jackson and Laura Holdsworth. There is hope for the other clubs yet!
The Western Wolves in 2009 were determined to create their own history for being the only Wolves teams to go back to back Premiers. After a slow start including losing to Balmain and Newtown, the Wolves started their unbeaten run of wins and draws. Although other teams such as the Shamrocks and Sydney University gave them a strong test, the Wolves were always able to prevail. The most encouraging thing was that the loss of players to the Shamrocks didn’t affect their playing strength with some stars of the future including 15 year old Lauren Hazell from Dubbo, ruck sensation Georgia Woodyard and players such as Baccara Griffiths, Annika Humpheries, Vicki Zacharia, Emma Molenaar, Leagh Taylor and Rachel Coates. Their recruit of the year was Talei Owen. Their most impressive win over the Breakaways in the major semi-final showed that they had the momentum and went most of the way in the Grand Final until the final quarter.
The season showed although they farewell a champion in retiring half-forward Cynthia Dufaut, they have some future stars under Coach Jason King’s tutelage that will position themselves as one of the forces to beat in 2010.
Last Modified on 07/09/2009 19:30