Cougars hope this is the start of something big

THE Geelong Cougars will take two teams into tonight’s VNL grand finals, but under-19s coach Mel Savage says she’s confident all three sides can feature on the big stage this time next year.

Savage forms part of a coaching panel made up of Gerard Murphy, Olivia Wilson and herself and said the Cougars hoped the club’s success this year would encourage more local players to register for trials for next year’s teams in October.

“We’re very, very lucky that we’re a club that is classed as a regional club and most of our talent is local talent,” Savage said.

“It’s a bit of a Catch-22, though, because we only have a certain amount of spots, but we pride ourselves on the fact that our club is based on local talent in Geelong, which is fantastic.

“We do, I think, have the most talented list in the league and a very, very young list, so Gerard is working through what we need to do to take the next step.

“He is doing a lot of list management stuff at the moment and we have trials again in October so . . . it will be interesting to see how many girls from local netball register to trial with us.”

The division one side will be aiming for its first premiership tonight against DC North-East Blaze, while the under-19s team is aiming for consecutive wins against City West Falcons.

Savage said the five-year plan Murphy brought to the club was bearing fruit, and next year could be the year for the ultimate success at championship level.

“They’re a very new group, the championship team, and we’ve seen in years gone by that it does take two or three years together to actually make finals and have an impact in finals,” she said.

“We certainly did that but they will be looking to come back better and stronger next year. We had a lot of inexperience and it’s the first time ever in the club’s history that we’ve made the championship finals.

“It is a new position for a lot of the girls, and I know Kaitlyn (Sheringham) has been with the club for 10 years and it’s the first time she has played finals.

“So it was pretty special but at the same time it was really disappointing because they did play so well.

“It’s tough work and Gerard Murphy, our head coach, came in with a five-year plan and we’re seeing the fruits of that now, which is great.”