How Wallsend Wolves have overcome 2100+km of travel to book Vawdon Cup grand final spot
Wallsend has travelled over 2100km in the space of five weeks in the Vawdon Cup to enhance their State Cup claims. Now they are one game away from taking out the Women’s Premier League.
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Few teams have travelled further to be part of the Vawdon Cup than the Wallsend Premier League women.
On their path to the grand final they’ve clocked up 2182km over the space of the last five weeks. In comparison their opponents Manly have just 423km under their belts this season, a whopping 1759km less.
What makes their grand final appearance this Sunday even more special is the expectations placed on the team prior to round one.
“We entered a team into the Women’s Premier League at the State Cup. We were competitive but didn’t have the experience that the Sydney teams had,” coach Natalie Little said.
“It’s where we needed to go. We needed to take them to Sydney on a weekly basis to improve and be competitive.
“They’ve far exceeded our expectations.”
It hasn’t been an easy journey, particularly with Friday night fixtures in Tempe and Parramatta proving demanding at the best of times.
Little said the demands as a regional team in a Sydney-centric competition have been tough, but she’s been proud of the way her team has been able to compete week-in, week-out.
“Commitment wise, it’s tough,” she said.
“To drive down every Friday night, we have players from Singleton and Nelson Bay as well. To backing up and playing regional tournaments the next day.
“It’s definitely tough for regional teams.
“They’ve changed the structure to six weeks and we were able to sustain that. They waited until the end of footy season which helped too. We have a few girls in the NRLW and Tarsha Gale Cup.”
When asked what has impressed Little so much about her troops, the answer was simple.
“Their grit and determination,” she said.
“They’re playing against established teams that have been together for years. There’s a sprinkling of Australian women’s players across the teams but they haven’t let that deter them.
“They’ve given everything they have. We weren’t expecting to even make a playoff final, but they’ve got better every week and proved to themselves they are worthy of being in that space.”
Wallsend has walked the finals tightrope with back-to-back elimination wins over Hills and Easts.
They will be looking to overcome a loss earlier in the season to Manly, but Little has faith their game plan can help them do just that.
“It’s going to be very tactical. We’ve worked our strategies around their game plan,” she said.
“We’re pretty much playing a men’s style of game and that’s what has given us the edge.
“We have a game plan around a couple of their key players and we’ll change our defensive structure to try and combat them.”
Originally published as How Wallsend Wolves have overcome 2100+km of travel to book Vawdon Cup grand final spot
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