Coach Gina Pearson has liked what she’s seen from her squad this season, the Murray Bombers finishing in third with a 15-3 record, and earning their way into the grand final with a five-goal win over Shepparton United at the weekend.
“I’m super impressed with the development of all the kids in this grade,” she said.
“We focus on being our best and doing a lot of learning throughout the year, and that’s been our focus.
“We don’t have to be at our best at the beginning, but we want to be playing at our best by the end, and our game last week was fantastic to get us into the grand final.
“A really strong contest, but the girls were able to stay focused and control their play.
“We got everybody out on the court, everybody played their role.
“We’re really rapt with how our season’s gone.”
Having won the past two titles and making another grand final, Echuca’s netball future looks bright.
“The biggest focus is on the development of our juniors so that we can strengthen those players to go through into our senior competition,” said Pearson.
“It is wonderful to see the growth in the players and to be able to move them up to the next grade and know that they’re going to compete well.”
Grand final opponent Mooroopna has been the benchmark in the competition this season, picking up the minor premiership and winning three previous meetings by 15, 18 and 11 goals respectively.
Despite its underdog status, Pearson knows anything can happen for her squad in a grand final.
“It’s always different come finals, but I just keep saying to the girls that we need to focus on what we do well, remain focused on that and not worry about what they’re doing,” she said.
“There are certain players that we will need to combat, they’ve got a really good goal shooter who’s very strong and a good centre court player, but it’s about learning from our experiences (against them).
“We’ve got nothing to lose. We haven’t beaten them all year, but they’ve got everything to lose so we’ll go out there and really focus on our own game.
“We know that it takes all 10 of us to get over the line, and we’ll be making sure we utilise everybody’s strengths and attack their weaknesses.”
The 15-and-under grand final will kick off GVL grand final day at 8.30am on Sunday.
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