2025 Victorian Netball League grand final live stream: Hawks v City West Falcons
The City West Falcons produced arguably one of their greatest ever victories to claim a fourth-straight VNL championship crown against the Hawks on Wednesday night. Watch the REPLAY.
City West Falcons gave legendary coach Marg Lind both a heart attack and a birthday to remember, clinching a historic four-peat from the doorsteps of defeat to deliver a classic 60-58 grand final over Hawks.
The reigning premiers came into the clash vulnerable, after a young Hawks side got the better of them in the semi finals.
WATCH THE FULL MATCH REPLAY ABOVE
And it seemed like it was going to go the way of the Hawks again, the grand final newcomer controlling the first half with composure and patient ball movement beyond their years.
But City West Falcons – and their rowdy fanbase – wouldn’t quit, with the squad somehow finding a way to grind their way back into the game, getting within two goals heading into the final quarter.
“We’ve been down in finals before, and we know how to grit it out to the end,” centre Montana Holmes said post-win.
Levelling and eventually hitting the lead midway through the final term, it felt the momentum was now strongly with the Falcons – though their opponents didn’t falter as they brought it back level and went goal for goal all the way to the final minute.
And cruelly it was a missed shot by Hawk goal attack Jessica Tetley which saw the title snatched out of the brown and gold faithful’s hand, as the Falcons defence swooped on the rebound to send it back to down to sharpshooter Jane Cook (55 at 94 per cent) to sink a matchwinning goal with 20 seconds left, before converting one more off their own centre pass to put a rubber stamp on the win.
“I don’t know how we did it, unbelievable,” Lind said.
“We didn’t play well at all … until it mattered.
“We just got back into it, put a bit of pressure on them, that’s what we talked about at all the breaks.
“They (Hawks) played well, we just had a bit of experience and grit in the end, which we knew we’d need.”
The Falcons looked to double-team star Hawks shooter Ashlea Mawer earlier in the game, in a bid to force Tetley to shoot more from goal attack, though the Hawks still found a way to get it into Mawer’s hands.
The Tasmanian was flawless with 46 goals – though it was veteran goal attack Olivia Cameron who was eventually crowned best on court with the Falcons’ win.
Geelong Cougars v Melbourne University Lightning (2025 Victorian Netball League 23&U grand final)
Melbourne University Lightning overcame first quarter jitters to storm home with the VNL 23&U premiership, 54-42 over Geelong Cougars.
With both clubs fighting for their first premiership since 2023 – each taking out the now former 19-and-under and division 1 competitions – it was the higher-placed Lightning who got the job done with a series of blitzes in each of the latter three quarters.
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A Lightning blitz to start the second quarter turned the game on its head, Steph Norton’s side going on a 9-1 run to wrestle back control which the Cougars managed on a knife’s edge in the first.
“We all just got the nerves out, we were a bit nervous and obviously we didn’t know what they’d be like, we were feeling them (out),” Lightning captain Montaya Sardi said.
“In the quarter time huddle, we came in and said if we want this we’ve got to fight for it.
“Getting that blitz really helped us get our confidence up.”.
But a young Cougars outfit didn’t let it rattle them, slowly but surely reeling the lead back, with cold head Charli Hoey getting a handful of key tips in goal keeper and goal shooter Eliza Dunell’s shot cold as ice down the other end.
Another 8-1 Lightning swing was again reeled back by the Cougars to make it a one goal game at three quarter time, but the Lightning’s third and final run in the fourth was the dagger as they pushed out to a premiership-winning 12 goal lead.
“It’s obviously so hard with the noise and atmosphere but we said block it out, play our game, treat it like any other game, we’re in control, we don’t need to rush the ball,” Sardi said.
Lightning goalkeeper Tilly Shepherd came up big with several interceptions, with a similar rampant midcourt pressure later causing turnovers all down the court to get the ball into Kate O’Dwyer’s hands (34 goals at 94 per cent).
“Tilly’s amazing, she’s such a great player and saves our bums a lot of the time when we throw the ball away so to have her in our goal keeper position, we just trust her so much,” Sardi said.
PREVIEW
An illustrious four-peat might sit in reaching distance for City West Falcons, but for the VNL powerhouse and its head coach Marg Lind, there is a sense of having nothing to lose in Wednesday’s championship grand final.
In a battle between the seasoned premiership winners and a young upstart outfit in the Hawks, the Falcons will go in steeled for a fight after getting upstaged by their rivals in the semi finals a fortnight ago.
The Falcons and Hawks clash will headline a VNL grand final double-header, streamed live and exclusive on KommunityTV from 7pm.
It marked the Falcons’ only loss so far this year, and their third in three years.
And while Lind felt her players handled the pressure better in a 61-55 preliminary final win over Boroondara Express last week, the astute mentor had plenty to work through with her team during Sunday night’s final training in a bid to overthrow the Hawks.
“Absolutely, there is a bit of a shift in plan, and I think there’s a shift in mood too,” Lind said.
“I think we were pretty complacent last time we played them, I don’t think the players prepped mentally hard enough.
“There’s a determination this time, and more a feeling we don’t have anything to lose.
“We were the losers in the first final against them, and now we’re going in with a lot more determination, a lot more preparation.”
Hawks head coach AJ Ballantyne is more than prepared for the Falcons to throw some different tactics at his group.
“I’m sure they don’t like losing, it doesn’t happen very often that they lose,” Ballantyne said.
“I’m sure they’ll come out pretty fired up and whether they throw a few different things at us this time …
“But it’s one of those things, anything can happen in a final and I’m confident the girls are going to be right up for the challenge.”
For Ballantyne, the Hawks’ semi-final win over the Falcons epitomised a season of growth and improvement within a group which featured several newly promoted 23&U premiership players and just a handful of players over the age of 24.
“We came into the year thinking we had a pretty good team that could do something … but with five players coming up from that 23&U premiership team you just don’t know how they’re going to adjust to championship, whether the team’s going to come together,” he said.
“They’ve just kept on improving throughout the year. Last year, we lost a lot of close games and all those tight results we couldn’t find a way to get over the line.
“This year it’s been the opposite, they’ve stuck together in those tight results and the semi final is the epitome of that.”
Though the Falcons’ roster reads as more experienced and stable from last season to now, they too have had to work through changes – all unforeseen – when goaler Uneeq Palavi got more Super Netball opportunities and defenders Melissa Oloamanu and Soli Ropati went down with injuries before the season started.
It meant goaler Olivia Cameron ended up playing every week, while Maddy Romios worked herself back into the goal circle after having her first child last year.
It also saw pre-season recruit Charity Nasalio, who Lind hadn’t promised anything in terms of game time, become an indispensable addition as the New Zealander cemented a starting position in goal keeper.
“Charity’s been a massive addition to the group just because she’s so positive and tactical and has a bit of fun,” Lind said.
“It’s a bit of a crazy group but they get along well.”
Nasalio will look to nullify Hawks’ sharpshooter Ashlea Mawer, the Tasmanian Netball League’s most decorated player who made the move to Melbourne this year to test herself in the VNL.
“She’s just risen to the level of competition and just been so steady and composed,” Ballantyne said of Mawer, who has shot 860 goals at 94.3 per cent this season.
“And it’s been good for her as well, I think she’s been able to develop her skills, which was part of the reason she was coming, to develop and test herself.”
23-AND-UNDER GF: ‘Fearless’ Cougars taking the fight to Lightning
They’ll go in as the self confessed underdogs but Geelong Cougars coach Mel Savage believes her team’s “fearlessness” can cause an upset in the Victorian Netball League 23-and-under grand final.
The Cougars take on Melbourne University Lightning in Wednesday’s decider at the State Netball Centre, having finished the home-and-away season in fifth, four games shy of their second-placed rivals.
Both the 23&U and Championship grand finals will be available live and exclusive on KommunityTV from 6.50pm.
But wins over higher-ranked Bendigo and North East Blaze, the latter minor premiers, in finals is proof enough the Cougars can walk away with the premiership.
“We’re really confident, but we know we go in as the underdogs,” Savage said.
“I think that’s probably been a tag we’ve had for the last five or six weeks.
“But this young group is fearless, not concerned about what other people think, just want to play and play together and play well.
“It’s a nice attribute going into such an important match.”
For the Lightning, it’s been a season of redemption after the club bowed out in last year’s preliminary final in a heartbreaking one-goal overtime loss to North East Blaze.
Getting their revenge in this year’s preliminary final, the Lightning knocked the Blaze out last week with a blistering 22-10 third quarter the difference in a comfortable 64-46 win.
Lightning 23&U coach Steph Norton said while there had been a few comments earlier this year about needing to go “one step better” this year, making a grand final hadn’t been the focus week-in-week-out as they worked a handful of recruits into their rotations.
“I think we are focused on, every year brings different challenges for teams, and you have different teams that stand up – finals are difficult, finals are a different ball game, the crowd gets involved, the perceived pressure for athletes,” Norton said.
“I think for us, it was just making sure we had a good finals series (this year).
“Last year we didn’t have the best game against Hawks straight up, then there was the Blaze game going into overtime and missing out on the grand final.”
This year’s grand final is the first meeting between Geelong and Melbourne University since round 2 – a game the Lightning took comfortably, 60-45.
Savage believed her squad was a very different side to that March encounter, the Cougars also without star defender Mia Aitken for that match-up.
“Having such a young group, we thought they’d take time to gel and I think our first half of the season was about that, working through combinations,” Savage said.
“I think we’ve really hit our form at the right time of the season.”
While Norton pointed to the Cougars’ defence’s ability to turn over “a lot” of ball as one area of the game they’ll need to mitigate, the Lightning will be equally focused on what they do well.
“For us, it’s about sticking to our game plan and making sure we’re executing and working the ball down, doing everything we’ve done well in the finals series and throughout the season to give us that second spot,” Norton said.
Geelong star dreaming of fairytale end to return
Geelong Cougars midcourter Maddie Mickovski remembers a sense of anxiety that surrounded a long awaited round 1 return from injury.
Having had her entire 2024 VNL season in the 23&Us wiped out after a right shoulder reconstruction, the 19-year-old admits it took time to find her confidence back on court.
“Coming back into VNL and anticipating that first game, I just thought that it would re-discolate,” Mickovski said.
“I think that anxiety from that really held me back the first half of the season.
“But when I started getting more match play, getting more game time, it let me relax a bit more, and also just having trust in my girls as well.”
Twenty-two weeks on from her return, Mickovski and her Cougars teammates are a game away from bringing a premiership back up the M1 highway, having fought their way from fifth-place to reach Wednesday’s 23&U grand final against Melbourne University Lightning at the State Netball Centre.
Mickovski, who plays wing defence and centre, has found herself thrust right in the middle of finals action, after teammate Zoey Shaw was sidelined with an ankle injury.
Starting as wing defence in both their elimination and semi final wins, coach Mel Savage praised Mickovski’s performance in the latter as the best game she’d seen from the teen – whose final minute stop was crucial to the Cougars securing a one-goal win over minor premier North East Blaze.
“I do feel like I’m just learning that wing defence role again,” Mickovski said.
“Unfortunately, Zoey did go out with an injury … but letting me have that opportunity, I just really want to capitalise on that and be the best that I can be in that position.
“I feel like coming in with that (shoulder) injury, confidence was lacking most of the season but we have such a strong culture, almost like a family around here.
“It’s been really good to have the trust and support, especially (co-captains) Mimi (Lockwood) and Charli (Hoey) in that defensive end.”
Multiple dislocations throughout Mickovski’s first two seasons with the Cougars’ 19&U side saw the Geelong teen ultimately go under the knife in 2024.
“My first VNL game, in the first like five minutes, it got pulled out and just dislocated and I had that reoccurring for two years,” she said.
“I just felt that I needed to get that (surgery) done.”
While Mickovski flew through her rehab in six months, it wasn’t enough time to get back on court last year, the Cougars just missing out on finals.
But the midcourter maintained a strong presence within the program while sidelined, regularly attending training and games.
“The first training I came back was a week post-op,” she said.
“I just feel like I needed to indulge myself in that environment straight away because Cougs are such a supportive family here.”
As for how it was to watch on from the sidelines?
“It just felt like I was like a mum watching my kids play,” she said with a laugh.
“Like, I know that nerve wracking sense now, that anxiety.
“But it’s good that I can finally utilise my netball skills that I’ve been holding back … just getting on the court and doing things my own way.”
Mickovski didn’t have any big goals in her return to court this year, with the Cougars’ grand final appearance holding more meaning for the midcourter when thinking about her teammates.
“I think it’s more of a journey rather than an accomplishment,” she said.
“I was happy to come back this year, just playing netball …
“But I’m just glad to do it with these girls, and I think they’re all well deserving to be in the final.”
Inside the ‘surreal’ ride for Hawks star defender
Hawks young gun Georgie O’Brien says her rise from 23 & U premiership player to championship grand finalist has been a “surreal” one.
Throw in a silver medal with Victoria’s 19 & U squad at nationals earlier this year, and that’s three major grand finals within the last 12 months for the talented 19-year-old wing defender.
Among four players from Hawks’ historic first 23 & U premiership team in 2024 to be elevated to championship this season, O’Brien has helped extend that success to the Hawks’ top division, who had fallen four goals short of a grand final berth last year.
Standing in the way of the club’s first championship title under the Hawks’ 2018 rebrand is powerhouse City West Falcons, on the hunt for a record four-peat.
But it was a gutsy semi-final win by the Hawks as self-confessed underdogs over their then-undefeated rivals which offered O’Brien and her teammates confidence and the knowledge their opponents were beatable.
“To come out with a win, and not only a win, but winning all four quarters gave us heaps of confidence,” O’Brien said.
“But we still need to get ready for the next game … just be prepared for that.
“Do what we do best and hopefully come away with the win.”
A steep rise from 23 & Us to championship brought about initial nerves for O’Brien, known for her dogged defence and ability to shut down her opponents, though it helped to have 23 & U premiership teammates Olivia Barnett, Sienna Green and Hannah Keane step up alongside her.
“Having the season go on, I didn’t know what to expect and obviously 23s to champs, it was a big jump, the way they play netball is so much different, smarter, you have to adjust,” she said.
“But coming out (in champs this year) and going straight to a grand final is crazy and so exciting and so surreal.”
One teammate O’Brien has been able to turn to is fellow defender Kirsty Clark, the pair also teammates at local club Dingley.
“When I was in 23s she was someone I looked up to,” O’Brien said.
“She made coming from 23s to champ so comfortable, if I needed anything she’d always be there for me, (I’m) so grateful to have her in the team.”
Also extending the Dingley connection at Hawks is head coach AJ Ballantyne, who has coached O’Brien at Hawks and the Dingoes, as well for Victoria’s 19 & U national title campaign, where the pair took home a silver medal with O’Brien acting as vice-captain.
“He’s been great, I’ve had him (as coach) for every netball I’ve played,” O’Brien said of Ballantyne.
“He just knows his players really well, knows what’s right for you … He’s a tough coach and pushes you but he does it in our best interest and just wants the best from us.
“You can see that reflected on the court and how well we’ve been performing as a team.”
Originally published as 2025 Victorian Netball League grand final live stream: Hawks v City West Falcons
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