WATCH HOCKEY FINALS LIVE
The Cairns Post begins a new era in its community sport coverage today with livestreaming of the Cairns Hockey grand finals over two nights. Subscribe and watch at cairnspost.com.au —
YOU go out to win.
It’s become somewhat of a mantra in the Whipp household at this time of the year.
Daughter Caitlyn will lead Souths in tonight’s A-grade women’s grand final, with mum Susan taking up a spot in the defensive line, before son Liam leads the club in tomorrow’s A-grade men’s decider, with dad Carl in the coach’s seat.
“We always say that you go out to win,” Caitlyn said.
“As soon as you cross that white line, especially in a grand final, 60 minutes is all that’s left – there’s no tomorrow, there’s no next week – so you go out there, play hard, leave nothing on the pitch and you do all the little things, because they’re the things that contribute to putting in that extra effort and going all the way.”
She said Souths would need to play to their strengths in tonight’s A-grade women’s decider against Saints.
“We’ve got quick forwards and we’ve got a lot of experience across the field,” she said.
“I think we’re going to use that to our advantage; get our match-ups right and get on top of them early will be the aim.”
Saints’ American defender, Kayla Devlin, who moved from Melbourne to Cairns at the start of the year, said she had enjoyed her first season with the Sky Blues.
“Even though we had to take a break for a while, we’ve been able to build every week and it’s been a lot of fun playing for them,” she said.
But while she may be new to the club, Devlin said the significance of making the grand final was not lost on her.
“From what I’ve heard and what they’ve shared, I know that Saints has historically been a strong club,” she said.
“It’s exciting for us to continue to prove our name and make it to the finals again.
“Being new to that, I really felt that club mentality and it would be cool to represent them and bring home the premiership shield.
“We’ve shown over the season that we can play good hockey together.
“A big thing for us is just taking everything we know and that we can do well and putting it into the game.”