Hepburn A grade coach Gary Cooke speaks to The Courier after qualifying final win against Learmonth.

Transcript

00:00Alright, so Gary, how does it feel to defeat the undefeated?

00:03Yeah, it looked good, really good. We were very confident coming into it. We knew it was going to be a tough game.

00:07We believed we had the quality team to do it. All it took was our first week of having the full team here.

00:13And we just backed us up. And as you saw, they came back at us quite a few times.

00:17So we just knew we had to knuckle down and get on with it.

00:20Yeah, it was super close. They kept coming back, but I noticed you just looked really patient and confident out there.

00:24What do you think it was that got you across the line at the end?

00:26Well, we talked about that. We knew they were going to come back. I mean, they're a quality team.

00:30We just needed to maintain position, treasure position, and just keep it short and sharp.

00:34Not try and go long. We knew they were quite an aerial team.

00:37And we knew with our short, sharp sort of drives down court, we can have a pace that's really hard for the pins to keep up.

00:42So that was it. That was our game plan, was to go short, sharp, go so fast that they didn't have time to set up.

00:48And they did, many times, but luckily we got through it.

00:51Were there any sort of players that stuck out to you?

00:53I thought Montaya in the centre was outstanding. She was so solid.

00:57And also just a good leader on court, even if she wasn't having possession with the ball.

01:01Her direction to the other players was great.

01:03Emma Winfield, Winnie, playing a goal attack was just outstanding.

01:06I thought she was a playmaker in that game.

01:08Her wing attack was great. Down in defence, we were trying to mix it up a little bit.

01:11We were trying to get them to double up on their shooter, and it was kind of working.

01:14So it was obviously a full court effort, but I think maybe Montaya and Winnie were probably the two, I thought, were the playmakers for us.

01:21So we've spoken about it before, but you said you were back with most of the full side today.

01:25So was most players back on?

01:27We had everyone except one had gastro, so she couldn't be in it.

01:30But look, everyone else, so we're confident. We've finally got everyone available.

01:34So hopefully for the rest of the finals, we'll have everyone.

01:36Yeah, I know. So getting that win in there must have given you a fair bit of confidence today.

01:40Look, it does. We know it's a challenge. I'm still very nervous about Daylesford.

01:43I still think they're probably the best team.

01:45But look, I mean, if we're good enough to win it, we'll go through and beat whoever we come up against.

01:49But that is definitely a confidence booster. It's what we knew at the start of the year we could do.

01:54We just needed to get everyone together to do it.