Barker College Girls 1st XI 2010 Grand Final Report
In cold and windy conditions at St Gregory’s College Campbelltown last weekend, the Barker 1st Girls Football team achieved the ultimate reward for a superb season – a grand final victory!!!
Having already won the minor premiership two weeks earlier, the girls were desperate to make it a clean sweep but it was never going to be easy against a hard working side like Chevalier who gave us some very tough competition throughout the season. Nerves aside, the girls started the game brightly, playing the ball around with confidence in attack and in defence everyone was working hard to make life difficult for the opposition.
With Ally Meak out injured there was extra pressure on both Lauren and Jules to perform well up front and both girls didn’t disappoint, with Loz instrumental in all of our early attacking moves and of course Jules popped up after 8 minutes to score our opening goal (as she’s done all season). Bronte, Jess, Lexy and Alice were completely dominating the midfield and as a result the Chev keeper was under all sorts of pressure in the opening 15 minutes of the game. It was Lauren however that was creating the most havoc up front and when her superb left foot shot hit the post I wondered if it was going to be another one of those days. Slowly but surely Chev clawed their way back into the game and on 20 minutes they hit the post with Tory well beaten and with a succession of corners thereafter, all of a sudden it was Barker under all the pressure.
Thankfully our back four of Gemma, Alison, Zoe and Eva held their nerve showing plenty of courage and determination to keep Chev’s attacking raids to a minimum, Eva’s performance in particular was simply inspirational. Tory was also having another fantastic game in goals, her awareness and kicking was outstanding in the opening half. Sophie, Emily and Chris then entered the fray and almost immediately Chris made an impact with one of her first touches putting in a threatening ball across the six yard box which almost eventuated in our 2nd goal. Emily then did well down the opposite flank when she beat two players before getting tackled just as she was about to unleash a shot. Barker certainly had all the momentum during the opening half but only went into the half time break with a slender 1-0 lead.
The 2nd half saw skipper Jess Drane take over and her performance certainly lifted everyone around her to another level, some of the football the girls played was a pleasure to watch and reinforced why they were minor premiers in the first place. Everyone was playing their hearts out, none more so than the “ever determined” Lexy Slater and it was her sublime through ball that lead to an equally impressive finish by our goal scoring queen Jules Davidson – 2 nil Barker. Other chances then came and went with Sophie, Jess, Lauren and Alice in the thick of the action and with 15 minutes remaining everything appeared comfortable, that was before Chev got a goal out of nothing and all of a sudden it was game on!
Much to the surprise of the opposition, the girls didn’t panic and actually stepped up a gear to regain control of the game such is the strength of character of this playing group in 2010, Bronte and Gemma in particular kept driving forward from the back inspiring the others to keep attacking. It was therefore satisfying when Alice Rowley (in her final game for the college) scored our 3rd and final goal 3 minutes from time to help secure a 3-1 victory and the premiership/championship double.
Another outstanding team performance by an outstanding group of girls – PREMIERS & CHAMPIONS 2010.
