In complete contrast to the nerves and joy experienced by Kongorong, a couple of hours later South Gambier celebrated a win of epic proportions in round three of women’s football at Blue Lake Sports Park on Sunday.
There are very few records left for the Demons to break, but they found another to smash on home turf against Millicent.
For the first time the club scored a double century booting 32 goals to registering 207 points on the scoreboard.
The cricket score was a true reflection of South’s dominance with the Saints hardly given a sniff of the Sherrin.
The likes of Kendell Saffin, Alice Tentye and Tess Andrews ran riot in the middle and rained scoring opportunities on their forwards.
Madison Zuijdveld and Melanie Bateman were unbeatable around the goal posts kicking six and five goals respectively.
When they were not taking strong marks or dancing around opponents to score majors, many others were also getting their names on the scoresheet with no less than 10 Demons kicking two goals or more.
In a scary sign of things to come South had already made a century before half time and managed to keep the Saints scoreless across the four quarters.
The round kicked off under lights up north in Kybybolite and the home side celebrated the occasion in style.
Kyby smashed the visiting Casterton Sandford team 73-0 with Sarah Jude, Tyler Atkinson and Georgia Gill the leading lights.
Dominating the play inside 50 was Della Hannaford, who was a defender’s nightmare kicking seven of her side’s 10 goals for the match.
Zhane Crawford and Lauren Sykes led the fight for the Cats, but could not help the Victorians to trouble the scorers.
The highest profile battle of the round was the night contest between Mundulla and Penola.
Both teams had already made an impression with strong performances across the first two rounds and a win against a fellow big fish would be a statement of intent.
After four fiercely fought quarters, it was the Eagles who were celebrating a victory which shows they could be the real deal in 2022.
After a slow and scrappy first half where only one goal was possible from Mundulla’s Dana Koch, the blue and white lifted in the second half.
The ruck work of Riley Mitchell provided the likes of Caroline McGrath and Nell Eastough with first use as Penola was able to utilize its domination of possession as the midfield allowed Angela Broad to do her thing in front of goals.
The Eagles took over control on the scoreboard by three-quarter time and consolidated their lead.
Penola coach Pete Hutchins said beating a team like Mundulla, which won the 2019 flag instills a lot of belief in his playing group after it fought like animals.
“We were saying how it does not matter what sport you play, Mundulla is just a good club that goes about everything in the right way,” he said.
“It was the most physical game of women’s football I have ever seen in my life, but the tackling was hard, but fair.
“It was an absolute slog and we had to fight through adversity because we suffered quite a few injuries, so to scrap out a win like that with everything going on was pretty impressive.”
Despite the slow start on the scoreboard, Hutchins said his team were able to dictate terms around the ground for the majority of the contest and believed it was a sign the gains the club has made over preseason.
“Our ability to win around the ground stoppages has stepped up because they used to always be a 50-50 scrap,” he said.
“But what we have found is the girls are happy to use more voice and have the confidence to know what to do in each situation.
“We had the game on our terms for the majority of the night because it was the best I have seen the girls work as a collective so far, but Mundulla set up really well behind the ball.
“Last year we addressed the group and believed there is too much talent not to make finals and now we cannot be complacent and are just trying to focus 100% in every aspect.”
