As the adrenaline high of a miraculous grand final victory wore off on Sunday night, Tamara Smith started to finally feel the chill of the winter’s night in the middle of Deakin Reserve. Shivering through the post-game ceremonies, Smith was still trying to believe that herself and her Mooroopna teammates were now premiership players. ‘‘It’s incredible,’’ Smith said. ‘‘I didn’t think yesterday I was going to be one, so it’s unreal.’’
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But Smith was able to create her own heat throughout the Northern Country Women’s League decider, fuelling the Cats’ coalface dominance with a superb midfield showing. On a ground much larger than that she is used to plying her trade on, Smith rose to the greatest challenge her side had ever faced and helped Mooroopna engineer a stunning heist to snatch the ultimate silverware away from red-hot favourite Echuca. ‘‘It was such a big ground compared to the ones we play on so there was a lot of running, but I thought I had some good impact which was good,’’ Smith said. ‘‘I’ve only played seven games with the girls, so I came in against Echuca at Echuca and we got absolutely pumped, so to come out today and beat a really quality side just makes it mean so much.’’
Although the final moments of the grand final were frantic, Smith was still able to stand back and realise her dreams were about to come true — even if she was still trying to come to terms with the euphoria. ‘‘As soon as there was five minutes left I thought alright, we’ve got this,’’ she said. ‘‘Not many teams can kick three or four goals in five minutes so that’s when I knew we had it in the bag.’’
THE GAME
Mooroopna 4.2, 4.2, 9.3, 9.4 (58)
Echuca 2.1, 4.2, 5.3, 6.4 (40)
Goals
Mooroopna: Kiara Cooper 4, Brittany Tancred 2, Shadelle Hood, Kristen Atkinson, Janeaka Cooper.
Echuca: Jodie Lake 3, Holly Hughes, Kym Mundie, Jessica Gould.
