Another late escape taking toll on Bluebirds coach
IT was a case of deja vu which almost saw Coolangatta QAFLW coach Nicole Graves suffer her second heart attack of 2020.
In Round 1, it was Bluebirds co-founder Lauren James who kicked a miraculous goal with 40 seconds to go for Coolangatta to down Bond University by five points.
But in Round 6, gamesaving honours went to James’s best friend and fellow co-founder Leah Kaslar, who clunked a contested mark 25m out against Maroochydore on the Sunshine Coast with less than a minute to go.
“They’re giving me a few heart attacks,” Graves said. “I said to the girls on Sunday, any chance we can be a couple of goals up next time.
“The teams were so even all day and they’d just kicked a point, so we were one point down, and I thought we were going down by one point.”
But after playing as a forward for the Suns AFLW side and finishing the season goalless, Kaslar wasn’t set to squander every kid’s footy dream.
Somehow in trying conditions, Coolangatta took the ball coast to coast before Sally Riley pulled down a strong mark from 55m out.
Sensing she didn’t have the distance on a dry day, let alone with a heavy, wet ball, Riley launched a torpedo to the top of the goalsquare as Kaslar emerged ball in hand and ensured the final kick of the day was on target.
Coolangatta finally returned to the winners’ list after resuming its QAFLW season with losses to Bond University and Coorparoo.
“We had grins on our faces the entire 2½-hour drive home,” Graves said.
■ New Bond University QAFLW coach Luke Mansbridge has his side building perfectly with three straight wins to restart their premiership campaign.
On Saturday, Bond overcame its first mental hurdle of the season, defeating Coorparoo 30-9 which embarrassed it by 76 points in the 2019 QAFLW grand final.
But the Bull Sharks mentor is still adapting to life in the top job and admits he needs a bit more time to perfect the art of pre-game speeches – his Saturday rendition leaving a few players trying to hold back laughs.
“Pre-game speeches are a bit different and I’ve never really had to do them before,” Mansbridge said.
“My pre-game speech wasn’t my best and I went over the same thing about three times, and I know a couple of the girls in the team quite well and they started smirking at me which defeats you.”