Netball
21 September, 2024
Demons break drought: Horsham wins 2024 WFNL A grade netball premiership
Horsham break eight year WFNL netball drought with 63-58 victory.
"This premiership means a lot to a lot of people."
Those were the words of coach Ebonie Salter after her side won the 2024 WFNL A Grade premiership.
The Horsham Demons defeated arch-rivals Horsham Saints 63-58 in front of a lively crowd at the Dimboola Recreation Reserve on Saturday, September 21, 2024, breaking an eight-year drought.
"I'm so immensely proud of the girls. I can't really describe how proud I am of them," Salter said.
"They've all grown, both off the court and on the court this year and and just the maturity we've got... There's a lot of young heads out there, but they didn't look like it today at all."
The Demons learned a lot of lessons since winning the minor premiership four weeks ago; after earning the bye in the first week of finals, they lost to the Saints 62-61 in the qualifying final.
Dimboola tested them in the preliminary final before earning a spot in the grand final.
Playing a full 60 minutes
Much like the qualifying final, nothing could separate the two sides from the first whistle; 34 shots were put up in the opening quarter, with only eight missing the target.
Fittingly, the teams went into the first break at 14-14.
As the sides began to fall into a rhythm, scoring opportunities were reduced, but the accuracy increased; only three shots were missed in the second quarter, but Horsham held a 32-25 lead.
Horsham's Imogen Worthy scored 22 goals, while teammate Georgia Batson scored 10.
Saint sharpshooter Jorja Clode had 21 goals at the other end of the court, while Abby Hallam chipped in with four.
As the crowd began to sense an upset, Salter told her sides to focus on the game.
"We knew that it didn't matter how much of a buffer we had, that what we were doing was working," she said after the game.
Worthy scored 10 more goals in the third quarter, while Batson added nine, and the Demons maintained the nine-goal lead into the final break.
"We were working really hard; we trained really hard, we really put a lot of thought in today's game and how we thought it might play out, and and we and it was working," Salter said.
"We were being rewarded. The hard part was not getting sucked in by the crowd, by the emotion of it all, and to keep moving our feet and play through the 15 minutes, not just play 13-14, minutes.
"We had to really play through those 15 minutes."
Salter lamented her side's five-minute lapse against the Saints in the qualifying final and said her side only played five good minutes of netball against Dimboola.
Following the grand final, she gave the side full marks for their concentration and executive until the final whistle.
"Today we played a very good 60 minutes," Salter said.
"It's the curse of being an A-grade player and coach; you always want better.
"There's things that we could have done better, for sure, but it doesn't matter now."
Dynamic duo 'clicked'
Worthy finished with 36 goals at 90 per cent accuracy, while Batson shot a perfect 27 from 27.
Clode finished with 41 goals (90%), while Hallam finished with 12 (66%).
"We've had a really great year. We've had a really great group. You know, we all come from different backgrounds," Salter said.
"We've all got different pressures and different sacrifices that we make to get on that court.
"We've just had so much fun all year. We've put the work in, and it hasn't felt like that much work because of the group."
Worthy was named the best on the court for the premiers for her high-calibre game.
"We just clicked today," Worthy said after the game.
"It normally takes us some time to get our stuff working, but today it was just beautiful."
"We worked on a lot of things at training that we were able to put into the game today," Batson said.
"We were able to hold the momentum for most of the game."
Real, raw emotion
Salter said the day's success resulted from years of hard work by many people at the club.
"Full credit to our squad this year and extended squad," she said.
"But of course, that comes from years of hard work and lessons learned and coaching and sacrifice. It really is a full club thing when the A grade win."
The win marks the first Horsham Demons A Grade premiership since 2016.
It also marked Salter's first premiership with the club since 2007.
"It still feels good," she said.
"Our defensive pressure was what we focused on all year. It's nice to get some in-the-ring work and be rewarded, but much of that pressure comes from outside the ring.
"I'm sure as the night goes on and the coming weeks, there'll be a lot of conversations and a lot of debriefing, but that real, raw emotion, getting back to that feeling of Demons of old, where we were really dominant."