By Tara Murray
When Ben Carroll took on the coaching the Craigieburn Eagles’ women’s side late last year, his focus was to return to Big V women’s division 1 as quickly as possible.
This season, their second back in division 2, Carroll and his players were fighting to take the side to back to where they thought they deserved to be.
On Sunday, the Eagles achieved that in his first year as coach, defeating Blackburn Vikings in game three of their grand final series.
After losing game one the previous weekend, the Eagles had to do it the hard way on the weekend in front of a big Craigieburn crowd.
Despite losing game one, Carroll said they were confident they could turn it around.
“Every time during the season, when we have lost we have been able to bounce back,” he said.
“This time it was no different. We sort of made training more light-hearted.
“But we knew leading into the game that the girls were switched on.”
In game two on Saturday night, the Eagles trailed by five points at half-time, before turning it around in the second half.
They restricted the Vikings to six points in the third quarter to trail by one point heading into the final quarter.
That momentum continued as they ran out 51-41 winners.
Carroll said they changed a couple of things during the week and that had paid off. One was changing the way they guarded Blackburn’s Andrea Belmonte.
He said while she was still able to have some influence, it wasn’t as much as in game one.
Carroll said the stand-out in that game was captain Kellie Bailey-Lynn, who top-scored with 12 points.
Carroll said that the way the two teams had played meant a game three decider was how it should be.
Having taken a risk and limited the minutes of some players on Saturday night, Carroll said he hoped it would give them more legs in the decider.
Sunday’s third game wasn’t pretty, with both sides struggling to shoot at a high percentage.
The Eagles shot at 20 per cent from the field and the Vikings weren’t much better, at 25 per cent.
“It was the fifth time we have played each other this year,” Carroll said.
“Everyone knows everyone and it makes it a lot harder to score.
“We target how many shot clock violations we can get and I think we broke a record this time.”
The game went down to the wire, with the lead changing throughout the match, especially in the last quarter.
A Nicole Cameron two-point shot with a 1.06 left proved to be the winner, with the Eagles winning 37-35.
Hours after the game, Carroll was still struggling for words on how to describe the winning feeling.
He said everyone had played their role.
“Belmonte was the MVP, which I think is a feather in our cap,” he said.
“Everyone stood up from game to game, even quarter to quarter, when they needed to.
“Someone like Emma Pullen doesn’t play many minutes, but we brought her on in a defensive role on Belmonte on the weekend. It’s a real credit to the team.”
Carroll said while they had the title in the bag, the hard work was only beginning.
He said there might be just a few celebrations first though.
“We don’t want to just be a player in division 1 – we want to be an actual contender,” he said.
Meanwhile, several Eagles players have been named finalists for the Big V awards.
Nicole Cameron is one of five finalists for the division 2 women’s most valuable player award and is also in contention for the all-star five team.
Kellie Bailey-Lynn joins Cameron as one of the finalists for the all-star five team.
Shona Brooks is nominated for the same division’s youth league player of the year.
Allanna Procak is in the running to take out the defensive player of the year.
Ben Carroll is a finalist in the coach of the year for division 2 women.
In division 2 men, Damon Smith is nominated for most valuable player and is a chance to be named in the all-star five.
Blake Dickinson has been nominated for the defensive player of the year, while Simon Wilson has been nominated for coach of the year.
