Southern Districts are Women’s Premier League champions after beating reigning premier Waratah

THE women of Southern Districts have won their first premiership and ended Waratah’s run of titles with a resounding grand final win

The Southern Districts Crocodiles are Women’s Premier League champions for 2019-20. Picture: GLENN CAMPBELL

THE women of Southern Districts have won their first premiership and ended Waratah’s run of titles with a resounding 6.3 (39) to 3.3 (21) grand final win.

Strong defensive pressure from the Warriors forced mistakes from their opposition but wasn’t enough to prevent the opening goal from the season’s leading goal scorer Ebony Miller.

Districts worked hard to keep Waratah’s co-captain Lisa Roberts out of the game though Jenna Singh and Sherayn Puruntatameri managed some big steals to keep their side in contention.

Waratah picked up momentum through the next two quarters with Lauren O’Shea and Sue Nalder scoring before Madison Yarran booted one over her shoulder to put the Warriors ahead.

However, the final quarter was all Districts with best on ground Grace Mulvahil, Kelsey Patterson and Bella Clarke lifting massively and Mickaela Derschow’s final score put any mystery of a win out of mind.

Mulvahil especially proved her quality as a big game player scoring twice through the game and her ball playing skills helped her side manage a few more.

Districts coach Tarmon Elliott was beyond happy about the win and incredibly proud of his girls for taking the ultimate prize.

“I’m surprised, elated, happy, words can’t really say it,” Elliott told the Sunday Territorian.

“Going into that last quarter we just had to go back to the drawing board, settle things down a bit and the girls knew what to do from there.”

Co-captain Lateesha Jeffrey was particularly excited to have to have pulled off the win.

“We worked really, really hard to get to where we are and it means the world to us to have finally got the ultimate prize after all that work,” Jeffrey said.

“Everyone stood up, everyone played their role. Every single person accounted for themselves on the field and we played a whole team game.

“Grace in particular really stepped up and has grown into an amazing, mature player but everyone stood up.

“This is just huge for us, we got knocked back a few times through the season but we were able to bounce back and get the ultimate prize.”