After being at the head of the pack for so long, Whorouly’s A grade netball squad were denied a drought-breaking win in Saturday’s O&K grand final. On the court at WJ Findlay Oval against reigning premiers Bonnie Doon, the Lions were playing catch-up early, ultimately going down 50-53. It was the Lions’ first trip to the grand final stage in A grade since 2012, and tensions were understandably high. With the calibre of players on court, it would come down to error mitigation, and poise, in deciding which team would emerge triumphant. It was the Bombers who would take the early lead, capitalising on their rebounds and putting the goals through to take a narrow lead at quarter time. Whorouly continued to have trouble penetrating Bonnie Doon’s defensive structure, with the Bombers not allowing any quick balls through. The margin was out to five goals at the major break, the Bombers leading the Lions 29-24. Whorouly kept fighting hard, and produced some consistent runs of goals to eat into the margin, but Bonnie Doon would always find away to keep them at a manageable distance. As time ticked down, Whorouly made some brilliant attempts to tie the game up, but Bonnie Doon’s defensive pressure and calm-headedness under the post was too much to overcome, with the Bombers’ dynamic Arianna Hearst named best on court. The emotion of the day and what it meant to the players was clear to see, but they can hold their heads high knowing they did everything they could and fought it out to the final siren. Whorouly coach Kelly Cousins said while the end result was unfortunate, the season the Lions had put together was incredible. “I’m absolutely proud of them, they didn’t give up - we had quite a few surges in that last quarter, we just weren’t able to convert on those ones,” she said. “We probably didn’t have the start we wanted to, that first half, we were off the mark a little bit, but we managed to reel that in. “I’m really proud of how our program’s running, and the culture we’re developing among the group.”
