By JARROD POTTER
ESCAPING decades of premiership drought, Doveton finally triumphed in Casey Cardinia’s A-Grade competition by seven goals over Beaconsfield.
Only one year after their A-Grade team was withdrawn from the Casey Cardinia competition, Doveton has gone from worst to first and claimed the premiership with an emphatic 50-43 victory.
Doveton finished the season undefeated, a perfect 16-0 record, but had to take the longer path to the premiership after the Doves lost a semi-final to Beaconsfield.
With a week off and the already-established premiership firepower, the Eagles would have fancied their chances heading into the last Casey Cardinia clash of 2014.
The final started horribly for the Eagles though as champion goalkeeper Abbie Sheers fell awkwardly after a contest and had to be helped from the court with a suspect ACL tear.
Beaconsfield rallied to regain composure after Sheers was helped off – shifting Sarah Murphy to goalkeeper for the rest of the match and bringing Kaela Hughes to goal defence. To their credit the undersized Eagles managed to restrict Doveton’s powerful goalers to 13 goals in the first term and keep the deficit to two goals at the first change.
The Eagles pushed ahead through the third term – shooting out to a 26-24 lead – but the Samason star began to shine its brightest from there on.
The biggest problem for Beaconsfield came from one of the youngest players on the court – Doveton goal shooter Rahni Samason lit up the court as she nailed 50 goals in a best-on-court performance.
“It felt so exhilarating,” Samason said.
“I was just running on adrenaline basically and it was amazing.”
Samason had immaculate service from the midcourt and defenders Maggie Taumaoe, captain Liz Edwards and Linda Hunt made sure Doveton didn’t let Beaconsfield off the chain.
It left Beaconsfield on the chasing end following a five goal in a row onslaught from the 16-year-old goaler in the fourth term and the gap only widened from there by the time the final whistle blew.
For the Doves Samason, Taumaoe and Aila Pera stole the show and Rata Hunia fed the ball to the in-form Samason superbly.
“It was such a huge team effort,” Edwards said.
“All I can say was that was our main goal – just to get in the top five and to come undefeated, then lose a semi and just push through to the grand final and take it home was the best feeling ever.
“I’m prouder than any other coach on the planet – our hard times all paid off.”
Berwick was bested in B Grade and C Grade competitions as Keysborough and Beaconsfield respectively held aloft the premiership cups.
In lower grade results, Narre Warren claimed four premierships – under-13 red, under-15 red, under-15 white and under-17 red – and played off in five of the six junior netball finals.
