Craigieburn Eagles’ championship dreams were destroyed in the cruellest fashion in the Big V women’s division 1 grand final.
The minor premiers hosted Western Port Steelers in the grand final on August 23 in front of a big Eagles crowd in Craigieburn.
The Steelers had an early lead before the Eagles had a 17-8 second quarter to have a six point lead heading into the main break.
It was back to three points at the last change, with the championship still on the line.
The two sides traded the lead throughout the final quarter with a Myra Wood three-pointer with a one and half minutes on the clock levelling the scores.
A Brittany Suarjaya three-pointer on the buzzer broke Eagles players and fans hearts, giving the Steelers a 59-56 win.
Coach Tobi Swinley said the girls were gutted.
“We were there and we didn’t go down without a fight,” he said. “They hit a shot on the buzzer and it is what it was.
“It is bittersweet losing that way. At the end of the day you want to be competitive with you win, lose or draw.
“We can hold our heads high. Had we been beaten by 20 points it would have stung a lot more.”
Briana Gray top scored with 16 points for the Eagles while Alexandra McKellar and Tegan Hindle scored 10 points each in the low scoring affair.
Swinley said while he hadn’t spoken with the playing group, he hoped they had been proud of the season they’d had.
The Eagles were the clear beat side through the regular season having locked up top spot with several rounds remaining.
“They’re doing some soul searching and dealing with it on their own,” he said. “We had an absolutely fantastic season.
“I think it was good and I’m proud of what we achieved. We spoke about it at training and everyone wanted to play hard for one another and that is rare in a team.
“There was the desire to be great for their teammates through the ups and downs and through adversity and we never lost momentum.”
With some injury concerns in the back half of the season, including two starters ruled out for finals, the Eagles had their challenges.
Swinley said they felt like the momentum was still there, but the boulder they were pushing kept getting bigger and the mountain they were going up got higher as they battled those injuries.
With the season over, the Eagles will now look ahead to next season.
Swinley, who hasn’t signed for next season, said they hadn’t discussed anything beyond this year.
“We have no idea what the future holds,” he said. “It was a two-year journey that started last year.
“We were focused on this year and shut everything else out.”
Meanwhile, the Eagles have announced Warren Taylor and Zac Donoghue as their youth league women’s and men’s coaches for next season respectively.
