Coaching masterstroke leads Ammos to another grand final
GEELONG AMATEUR TORQUAY 44 33
AN INSPIRED tactical move by coach Heidi Shaw propelled Geelong Amateur to a fifthstraight BFL grand final berth.
With her side trailing Torquay by one goal at halftime of Saturday’s preliminary final, Shaw made the surprised move to shift midcourter Sharon Ford into the goal circle. Partnering with Kate Schippers, Ford helped turn the tide as Ammos broke away to lead by seven goals at three-quarter time and eventually run out 44-33 winners at Drysdale.
Having made a slow start, trailing by seven goals early in the first quarter, Shaw waited until halftime before making the brave move to replace goal attack Maeve O’Kane with Ford.
“We just needed more drive and more mobility, so we put Sharon Ford, who is a midcourt player, into goal attack and our goal attack into goal shooter and they combined really well,” Shaw said.
“Torquay wasn’t expecting it, it was something that we’d never done before.
“We’d been lacking movement over the last couple of weeks, and during the week we spoke about it and said ‘what happens if that happens again? We need to do something different’.
“We needed another option, so we had a practice match during the week and we tried something different — putting Sharon into goal attack — and it seemed to work.”
Tigers coach Courtney Cuolahan admitted she was caught off-guard by the move.
“Their changes worked and we didn’t quite adapt quick enough,” Cuolahan said.
“At the end of the day we were beaten by a better side.”
With the tactic paying off, Ammos must now decide whether to implement the setup in Saturday’s grand final against Modewarre.
“We haven’t beaten them all year, and we might need to change it up, but whether that’s the move I don’t know,” Shaw said.