Adelaide Hockey Club claims double premiership as women beat seven-times champs Port
Adelaide is the toast of the hockey community after ending Port Adelaide’s dominance in the women’s Premier League competition.
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Entering a grand final against a team that has won the past seven premierships in a row makes for a tough challenge, right?
Well, Adelaide Hockey Club’s women’s side defied that logic when it made history by beating seven-times reigning champions Port Adelaide in this month’s Premier League grand final.
The Magpies entered the big clash as red-hot favourites, having played in 19-straight deciders and claimed the past seven titles.
But Adelaide refused to be spooked.
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The club eventually claimed a thrilling 2-1 victory in golden goal extra-time after scores were locked at 1-1 at the end of regular time at the State Hockey Centre on September 21.
The day became more special when Adelaide’s men’s also triumphed in their respective grand final against Seacliff, helping the club win the double for the first time since 2011.
First-year women’s top tier senior coach Minnie Gobolos said the team knew it was the underdog but had plenty of confidence its best would be good enough.
“We absolutely (thought we could win),” Gobolos said.
“We had a lot of belief during the season. We were 1-0 down but once we equalised I was like ‘right, we are good to go’
“Port have been the best team for probably 15 years so it was absolute excitement to beat the benchmark of the competition.”
Miki Spano netted the first goal for Adelaide, while Erin Cameron scored the matchwinner.
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Gobolos said the focus this season was establishing a strong culture off-field and that was behind the on-field results. She hopes to continue this success into 2020.
“It’s about setting a tone, setting expectations,” she says. “The group I had to work with this year is super hockey-smart – they are a very talented group.
“It was creating game-day habits that we knew would make us the benchmark of our competition.
“We are so lucky with the depth of our juniors, so keeping our current player-base is how we are hopefully going to be the next Port Adelaide of women’s hockey.
“That’s our aim, to keep our local talent and the culture around the club right now is just exceptional – we are in a very good place.”