THE Bathurst Lady Bushrangers locked in a fourth consecutive Central West AFL women’s minor premiership on Saturday thanks to a 4-10-34 to 2-4-16 win over the Dubbo Demons.
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Earlier this season the Bathurst outfit suffered just the second loss in its four-year history when falling to the Demons by 30 points in Dubbo.
But on Saturday at the same venue, the Lady Bushrangers did enough in testing windy conditions to get the win and move 12 points clear of closest rivals the Bathurst Giants with two rounds remaining.
“We’re super stoked with that,” Lady Bushrangers captain Kelsey Richards said.
“We weren’t really sure what to expect going over there, but we know they always bring a strong team. We were looking forward to it and pretty excited for the challenge, because it was back in round two that we played them over there.”
Though the Lady Bushrangers had comfortably beaten the Demons in Bathurst since that round two defeat, Saturday saw another hard-fought affair between the two.
Richards admitted her side did not always take the smartest options in terms of disposals – and 10 of Bathurst’s scoring shots were behinds - but they did adjust enough to the windy conditions to get the job done.
The Lady Bushrangers held the hosts scoreless in the final quarter to make it 12 wins for the season.
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“It was a bit windy during our game and I think that had a bit of an influence on the game … it was sort of blowing across the ground into a pocket. It was pretty difficult to navigate it throughout the game,” Richards said.
“Our disposal probably wasn’t very clean and it was quite scrappy, it was a very low scoring game up until three-quarter-time.
“Every time we play them we have to fight for our possessions, it’s just a matter of trying to kick the footy low when you’re going into the wind and we probably didn’t move it as cleanly as we have been throughout the season.”
With the minor premiership comes a spot in the major semi-final, with the Lady Bushrangers to meet either the Giants or Dubbo in that game.
“That win puts us in a pretty good mindset for the finals, so we played Dubbo and have Giants [this week] and will meet them again in the finals,” Richards said.
“I think it’s good to be able to play them at this back end of the season because the three of us have been fighting for position [on the ladder]. It’s good preparation.
“I think we’ve taken a few good lessons out of Saturday and we have a game plan moving ahead in terms of what we can work on.”
