IN a game that had everything from ups and downs to injuries to overtime, the 2023 Central Murray A-grade grand final was certainly one for the history books.
While Swan Hill have been no strangers to winning over the years, last year’s victory was one that meant a lot to the entire team.
“We had been up and around, we’d had some heartbreaks with some losses in grand finals, played in a few preliminary finals and things like that across the journey,” Swans premiership coach and player Madeleine Nalder said.
“It had been a long time coming for some of us, and some of us wondered whether we would ever actually win one again.
“To do it was obviously amazing, but even better to be able to do it with the group of girls that we had, and I’m not just talking about the players that took to the court that day, as we had a lot of different players in our team throughout the year.
“I think I probably speak for everyone when I say it was a special one for all of us.”
The 2023 premiership win was Swan Hill’s 10th, but their first in nearly 10 years.
The Swans went into the match as the underdogs, taking on minor premiers Lake Boga, who had only lost one game for the entire season.
When regular time finished with the scoreboard reading 41 a piece, it was a moment of deja vu for Nalder, with the Swans semi-final loss to the Magpies just a few weeks earlier in the back of her mind.
“I was like, ‘oh my god, not again’ after the semi-final, where we basically lost in the last 30 seconds of the game,” she said.
“I guess, looking back for me, I was the only playing coach on the court at that time in terms of Kelsey (McCoy) and Mollie (Quin), which has probably been unusual for us.
“The people we had off the court to support us were really important for us at that time, to settle the nerves, regroup, and be able to reiterate the things that we needed to keep doing and the things that we needed to tweak.
“I feel like our bench, both officials and our bench players, really played a massive part in that overtime break heading into our last 10 minutes.”
In the hot afternoon September sun, both team had given their all in the 60 minutes of regular play, and it came down to who could best muster up their energy in overtime.
“It was just never done until it was actually done, and I think that was proven in the fact that we probably had control early in the last quarter and then Boga were able to get back into it to level it at overtime,” Nalder said.
“Even overtime was close until the second part of that final five minutes – it really did have it all.”
When the final whistle sounded, tears flowed from both the Magpies and the Swans – tears of heartbreak, and tears of joy.
“I even feel like I’m getting a bit teary talking about it now,” Nalder said.
“It probably wasn’t widely known, but we had some players that had been through some heartaches during our finals series, so we were carrying a lot of emotional attachment to each other.
“To know we had done it for each other and for lots of different reasons, it was really special.
“It didn’t really matter how we’d come together for 2023, it all meant a lot to us for a lot of different reasons.”
But while there was so much wrapped up in that win, Nalder doesn’t think it would be productive to take that into the upcoming season.
“To be honest, I sort of feel like, from our perspective, that was last year and that was amazing. but this is a new year,” she said.
“We will be a different team, we will be playing against different competition, so what has gone on in previous years, I wouldn’t say it’s irrelevant, but it’s a new year, so we can’t dwell on past successes.”
