Altona went into the final against Footscray as underdogs, after two narrow losses to them during the season. They had only conceded a total of 8 goals against them and we knew it would be difficult to break through their defence.

The Altona girls made a shaky start, losing Caelli Del Grosso in the first few minutes. She got injured in our semi-final and was still struggling with the injury. We survived some tense moments thanks to some fine goal keeping by Elizabeth “Lizzy” Howell. We restructured our defence and young under 12 Jenna Polacsek stepped up to the challenge holding her own at the back. We were relieved to go into half time with the scores level.

As the game progressed in the second half we started making inroads into the Footscray defence by stretching them out wide. We thought we had the winning goal when the umpire awarded a determined Beth Samson a goal with less than two minutes left on the clock. Our joy was short lived after the far side umpire intervened, claiming that it hit a foot on the way in and the decision was overturned.

The girls came off very disappointed for a quick regroup before heading out determined to get the golden goal in extra time. Injured Caelli was dispatched to hang high in the attacking circle. The ball did not cross into our defensive half and after some excellent individual skill from Emma Tivendale down the left, she got the ball to the hard working Ashleigh Brooker in the centre. Ashleigh found Sophie Martin to her right, who delivered the ball into the circle to Caelli, who made no mistake in providing the precious goal and victory to Altona!

An outstanding team effort which each and every one of the 15 players involved can be very proud of!