Thomson coach Shannon Leach, captain Amelia Jarvis on grand-final bound Tigers’ rise up ladder in 2025
Shannyn Leach has been leading Thomson’s flag hunt since 2018. And after a series of sharp recruiting, positional and coachings moves, the Tigers are a win away from cracking the premiership code.
Thomson A-grade coach Shannyn Leach had hope this was the season something special could happen.
But in coming from a rare-ninth finish in 2024, it wasn’t until a string of wins over some of the competition's best in East Geelong, Winchelsea and Belmont across the first six rounds that belief started to bubble up and cement itself within a new-look Tigers side.
Ripping through the first half of the year with 12-straight wins, the minor premiers and grand finalists – set to battle Belmont Lions in Saturday's decider – would have just one blemish in the form of a 10-goal round 13 loss to the Lions.
But it proved the shake-up Leach and her Tigers needed to go up another gear – the Tigers now 6-0 since that defeat including a commanding 43-goal qualifying final win over Belmont.
“It was all of a sudden a belief, like ‘hell, this team can take it to the end’, and I think that belief settled in with the group,” Leach said of their early season success.
“It hit quite hard when we did lose round 13, and that’s when we stepped it up again.
“They say you have the loss you need and that was definitely it.
“Every single one (of the players) has brought something to the team.
“They each make each other better.”
Playing in the Tigers’ last A-grade flag in 2017 under coach Terry Corry, Leach’s goal has been to coach an A-grade premiership side since taking the reins in 2018, as much for her players as herself.
Coming up short in both the 2018 and 2019 deciders, the Tigers later bowed out in the 2022 and 2023 semi finals before dropping to ninth last year.
While Leach, who will also coach and play in Thomson’s B-grade grand final on Saturday, thought last year’s squad had what took to make a run at the flag, it soon became “the season that wasn’t meant to be” amid a number of player injuries, pregnancies and travel commitments.
Instead it lit a fire heading into 2025, the Tigers striking gold with blended squad of both new and returning players, with Leach now as confident as she’s ever been this squad can deliver on the grand final stage.
First-year Tigers captain Amelia Jarvis, who joined from Anglesea alongside friend Bree Caldwell, credited the club’s rebound up the ladder to Leach and her fellow coaches in Anthony ‘Birdy’ Burton and Julia Mitchell.
“Shan really went to work this off-season, she put together a team she really wanted to have on the court, and she drilled us and drilled us and drilled us until she got what she wanted done,” she said.
“It’s kudos to her and her heart that is in Thomson for us to be able to play the way we do.”
Jarvis described Leach as the “nicest, most relentless person I’ve ever met”, adding her messages were well-received by the players.
“She has so much love to give,” Jarvis said.
“She delivers the hard messages to you while giving you the biggest hug with her words.
“If there is any blurred lines, she irons them out straight away.”
A history playing mixed netball with Caldwell, alongside a friendship with her sister and ex-Diamond Tegan, saw Leach land both the goaler and Jarvis from the Roos – the Tigers also utilising some of Tegan’s expertise in a handful of sessions this year.
“It was just time, she (Bree) made a change, and Amelia I probably knew in the same circumstance, she’s friends in that circle as well,” Leach said.
“It all just worked, I think the stars aligned.”
Then, it was a conversation late last year with her former coach in Burton, who had coached Belmont in recent seasons, which soon saw the experienced coach take on a newly created role of senior performance and development coach while also bringing former Lions defenders Anger Akec and Puonyuom Mathiang across with him.
“Obviously it was quite disappointing for him how all that panned out (at Belmont), but he still wanted to be involved in a club,” Leach said.
“He adds a lot to our team, and he probably lightens me up at times, I get very white-line fever. We’re very different but we see things similarly.”
Former Margaret Webb medallist Emma Witham’s return from maternity bolstered the Tigers’ attack, Witham producing a standout season to be named captain of the league’s Team of the Year, with Leach as coach.
But the Tigers were quickly forced to move the magnets when Mitchell – last year’s captain – went down with an ACL injury during trials, Cheyenne Philpot making a successful switch from goals into defence.
Though a bittersweet season for Mitchell, Leach was rapt to have the experienced defender stay on with the group in a coaching capacity.
“She’s helped a lot with our defenders over the course of the year,” she said.
“She’s focusing on getting herself better, but it’s really helped her being involved and I could not be happier with that, she adds so much.”
Jarvis, a defender-turned midcourter since joining the Tigers, also credited Mitchell’s support when taking on captaincy duties.
“She’s given me a lot of guidance and I do look up to her for a little bit of strength when I need it,” she said.
A deep midcourt has offered the Tigers plenty of options – Jarvis, Skye Wellington, Ebony Harris and Shae Rowbottom all rotating through to feed a settled goaling set-up of Witham and Caldwell.
“Knowing just by looking at them (goalers) where they’re going to go has been something you can’t teach,” Jarvis said.
“We’ve just been lucky that’s gelled straight away.
“Four different completely different (midcourt) players, but those two goalies have been paramount for us … doesn’t matter who throws them the ball, they’ll catch it.”
Though a different line-up to past years, Jarvis was confident it was one where attitudes and personalities all aligned.
“We set out a goal in the pre-season, we had 10 points to adhere, and we reflected on that over the weekend, and every single one of them have been ticked off,” she said.
“We’re all on the same page … and ready to go.”
More Coverage
Originally published as Thomson coach Shannon Leach, captain Amelia Jarvis on grand-final bound Tigers’ rise up ladder in 2025
‘Concerning flavour’: Beeac shooting accused loses court bid
