Seeking fresh competition the Cats entered the unknown plane of Victorian League Two at the beginning of the season, facing off in earnest against metro and regional sides from across the state.
Now they’ve made the grand final.
A 1-0 win over Gippsland Strikers in the preliminary match booked Hannah Vibert’s side a spot in Sunday’s big-ticket event against La Trobe University.
To say she’s chuffed is a massive understatement.
“At the start of the year we didn’t really know what we were in for, being a country club going to Melbourne,” Vibert said.
“Pretty early on we realised we’d be competitive, but making the grand final, we’ve worked really hard.
“We deserve to have made it to the grand final and it’s really exciting knowing that potentially in our first year of Vic League Two we could be walking away with a premiership.”
Mooroopna finished the home and away season in second with an 11-3-4 record, losing the first round of finals 1-0 to none other than minor premier La Trobe.
Anything short of a win last week would’ve ended the Cats’ campaign.
But they had ventured too far to let that happen.
A cross in from Kate McKernan found the stick of Tegan Summers, who blasted the ball home from the top of the circle and in between the Strikers’ goalkeeper’s legs with eight minutes to go in the last quarter.
Now squaring off against La Trobe, which came down from Victorian League One this season and hasn’t been beaten from three attempts this year, Mooroopna is ready to cause the year’s upset.
“All the teams we’ve played this year have been really competitive and have pushed us ― it’s been really nice to play some different opponents that we don’t know a lot about,” Vibert said.
“Last week was a really close game, we had lots of opportunities and they also had lots of opportunities, but we kind of stuck to the process that we’ve been playing all year and it works.
“We know they’ll (La Trobe) be a challenge and we know that they probably expect to win.
“But we love that label of the underdogs just like everybody does, so we’ve really got nothing to lose.”
The devil-may-care approach may work in the Cats’ favour.
They have nothing to lose, with the club’s current infrastructure not catering to a potential promotion into Victorian League One should it take the victory at Melbourne Sports Centres.
And that’s fine.
As Vibert indicated, many of the Melbourne and university-based clubs have access to large influxes of players each year.
She said Mooroopna was “grasping at straws” in that department at times, which makes the scale of the Cats’ big date on Sunday all the more impressive.
“We’re called Mooroopna, we’re based in Shepparton, but we’ve got players coming from Echuca, Benalla, a few in Tat, so it really is a Goulburn Valley team,” Vibert said.
“It’s been a massive undertaking, the commitment level has been amazing and the support we’ve received from GV Hockey has been really good.
“We’re proud of ourselves, that’s probably the main crux of it.
“We’re quite happy in Vic League Two, but we’ll happily take the premiership with us.”
· Mooroopna faces off against La Trobe University at Melbourne Sports Centres, Parkville at 9.45am on Sunday.
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