Two final quarter goals help seal memorable Great Southern Football League Women’s premiership for Royals

Royals claimed their second Great Southern Football League Women’s premiership in three seasons after coming from behind to beat Railways in front of a huge crowd at Tigerland on Friday night. Lions coach Collin Pass described the grand final win as special after last season’s competition was cancelled midway through due to COVID. Star midfielder Taylah Orzel was a dominant force and was a deserving winner of best-on-ground honours while two final-quarter goals helped the Lions clinch a 15-point victory. “It’s hard to describe how big of an achievement it is to win after last year,” Pass said. “This one is extra special, it’s huge and feels like we have worked for two years to be rewarded with one premiership and it’s a massive relief. “This win means more to me than some of the ones I have played in.” After leading by a sole point at the last change, the Lions found another gear in the final term and capitalised on their dominant display higher up the ground booting two unanswered goals to secure the 3.5 (23) to 1.2 (8) victory. Lions full-forward Gracie Gibson gathered the ball and snapped superbly in the first 30 seconds of the final term to push the margin to seven points. When Georgina Lilford picked up the ball and run towards goal and put it through under pressure, the margin ballooned to a game-high 14 points with 10 minutes to play. The Tigers tried desperately to fight their way back into the contest but weren’t able to hit the scoreboard despite a host of inside-50 entries. Orzel was instrumental along with Nardia Humphries and Kylie Douglas was solid through the midfield, while Imogen Sivwright proved hard to get past at full-back and Lilford was also impressive. “We went into that last term confident and had belief because we were dominating the territory battle but weren’t capitalising,” Pass said. “Absolutely proud of these girls, we hadn’t beaten them all season so it was a big build-up but we were confident and believed in ourselves. “There was a lot of hurdles to get to this point but it means so much to win our second premiership.” Humphries kicked the first goal of the game at the six-minute mark before the home side responded through Kanisha Bennell who gathered the ball cleanly and ran into an open goal to give the Tigers a one-point lead at quarter-time. However the Tigers failed to score in the final three quarters as the Lions kicked one-point in the second term to level the scores up at half-time. Tigers captain Ellie White was rock solid across half-back, Hollie Siviour was impressive at full-back on Gibson while Apryl Oreo and Tayla Volker worked hard throughout. “Really proud of the team and they’ll learn a lot from that,” Tigers coach Craig Bevan said. “We played well but Royals were exceptional. “Our forwards didn’t function and they defended really well.” Close to 800 people were at Tigerland to watch the decider.