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Mines Rovers survive last-ditch surge to hold off Panthers in exciting women’s decider

Neale HarveyKalgoorlie Miner
Mines Rovers’ Niamh Daly (right) celebrates a goal with Jessica Bolton during the 2024 Goldfields Football League women’s grand final at Sir Richard Moore Oval on Saturday.
Camera IconMines Rovers’ Niamh Daly (right) celebrates a goal with Jessica Bolton during the 2024 Goldfields Football League women’s grand final at Sir Richard Moore Oval on Saturday. Credit: Carwyn Monck/Kalgoorlie Miner

An old saying that premierships aren’t given and must be earned played out in Saturday’s Goldfields Football League women’s grand final when Mines Rovers held off Railways in a thriller by eight points, 3.0 (18) to 1.4 (10).

In a low-scoring, defensive arm wrestle, the Diorites benefited from a two-goal first term while being held scoreless in two of the next three to secure a maiden GFLW flag.

Mines Rovers’ Chanelle Halligan celebrates a goal with Phoebe Tucker during the 2024 Goldfields Football League women’s grand final.
Camera IconMines Rovers’ Chanelle Halligan celebrates a goal with Phoebe Tucker during the 2024 Goldfields Football League women’s grand final. Credit: Carwyn Monck/Kalgoorlie Miner

Niamh Daly kicked two of the blue-and-whites’ three goals that denied Railways a premiership for a third straight season.

Chanelle Halligan accounted for Mines Rovers’ other goal, while Amie Reid was the goal scorer for Railways.

After they trailed by nine points at three-quarter-time, Railways — just as they did in the second term — kept Mines Rovers scoreless, but were only able to add a behind themselves.

Mines Rovers coach Quinny Matla lauded the work of both squads to deliver a nailbiting finish to the season.

“Railways matched out efforts in energy, speed and application so winning was never a given,” Matla said.

“But this is what we worked for all year, that one great result — but it was a back-and-forth game and fortunately for us we were able to nail those couple of early goals.

“We’d talked about that, too — that Railways like to get out of the blocks fast and we needed to counter that early if we wanted to win the game.

“My message was not to give away what we’ve earned this season by failing to put in the required levels of heart and effort.”

After both teams put up big scores this year, Matla said he was surprised only four goals were kicked in the grand final.

“I thought the scoreline would have been a bit different, on both ends,” he said.

Mines Rovers’ Torrie Revell and Railways’ Rosalie Gent.
Camera IconMines Rovers’ Torrie Revell and Railways’ Rosalie Gent. Credit: Carwyn Monck/Kalgoorlie Miner

“It was definitely frightening when they were pressing late in the last quarter, but we’d actually trained for that situation — as far as being able to lock things down in the last two or three minutes of games.

“We’d spent the past four weeks on that — what to do to hold things up, getting those subtle handballs out the back in the back line and maintaining possession.

“We’d trained very hard for that exact scenario, so it was nice to see it come off.”

Railways’ Rosalie Gent was judged best on ground.

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