IN Australian rules the third term is often referred to as the ‘premiership quarter’ and on Saturday at Bloomfield Oval it could not have been more true.
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It was the 15 minutes of the third quarter which set up the Bathurst Lady Bushrangers’ Central West AFL grand final win over Dubbo Demons.
There was just three points between the pair at the long break, yet the term which followed saw the Lady Bushrangers not only hold Demons scoreless, but kick four majors.
From there Dubbo was unable to recover.
“Something clicked in third quarter which was amazing, I suppose they don’t call it the premiership term for nothing,” Bushrangers skipper Tori Whitla said.
“Dubbo always brings it and plays a pretty physical game, we just had to go out there and take it on as much as we could and work around it.”
Jess Scadding, Haylee Lepaio (two) and Alora Dickson all booted majors, while Sarah Shackleton got on top of a good ruck battle with Dubbo’s Lauren Hazell.
The Lady Bushrangers also controlled the centre clearances and were strong across the half back flank on their way to a third consecutive premiership.
“We assembled and focused on team work this week and that’s what got us over the line. We all put in the hard yards and all the girls are really excited,” Whitla said.
“I don’t even have words to describe how good that feels, it’s pretty unbelievable. The girls worked really hard all year and I’m just really glad that we finally got here.”
