THE Bathurst Lady Bushrangers’ bid to make it three consecutive Central West AFL women’s premierships is on track following a thumping 12-9-81 to 1-0-6 major semi-final win over Dubbo on Saturday.
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Playing at George Park 1, Bathurst was keen to build on its undefeated minor premiership to be the first side into the 2017 grand final.
That they did, holding Dubbo scoreless until the final quarter as they reaffirmed their premiership favouritism.
“It was a little bit unexpected, but I was pretty stoked with the result. We had a game plan and we came out and stuck to that game plan and it paid off,” Lady Bushrangers skipper Tori Whitla said.
“Dubbo came out pretty hard, so to win like we did was unexpected. We turned around and looked at the scoreboard at the final siren and thought ‘Oh wow’.
“We were very focused, our coach gave us the order before the game to focus on the result, not the scoreboard, and we did that.”
The opening term saw Bathurst able to absorb the early fight shown by the visiting Dubbo side, booting three straight majors for an 18-point lead.
Scoring was tighter in the second quarter, but with a 5-3-32 to nil advantage at the long break, Bathurst was on track for its 14th consecutive win this year.
Dubbo did finally impact the scoreboard in the last quarter, but Bathurst still emerged with a commanding victory.
Jess Scadding and Keeghan Tucker booted four goals each, but Whitla said the result came on the back of a solid performance from all the Lady Bushrangers.
“It was a real team effort from the girls. When the ball got into defence our back line played very well, but our midfield and our forward line was good as well,” she said.
“Our goal kicking was a lot better than normal as well. We normally kick more behinds that goals, this was the first time this season I think that we actually kicked more goals.
“It was pretty windy up there on the top field and it kept changing direction as well, so we had to be very observant and adjust to it.
“It takes so much pressure off us now that we don’t have to play next week. We’ve progressed to our third grand final in three years, so we’re stoked with that.
“But we are not going to take the week off, we are not treating it as a rest week. We don’t know who we will be up against, but both of those teams have given us a bit of a scare at times, so we will need to be on our game.”