Terrigal 1 – 0 East Gosford
The two most dominant teams of the past two years met for another Grand Final as Terrigal were able to get their revenge on last year’s defeat, taking down a resilient East Gosford side 1-0 in extra time to take home the crown of WPL Premiers, adding more silverware to their incredible treble winning season in 2024.
The first real chance of the game didn’t take long to present itself as Noni Wheeler picked up the ball on halfway near the sideline and her precise pass unlocked the Terrigal defence, playing in Jessica Dominello through on goal.
The 2024 Golden Boot winner had teammate Emma Hurley to her left but elected to go herself, putting her chance to give East Gosford an early lead just wide of the goal.
An uncharacteristic turnover in the backline of Terrigal saw Emma Hurley pounce on the loose ball, finding Dominello who did extremely well to beat to Terrigal defenders in the box.
Leaving only the goalkeeper in her way, Dominello shot the ball low and hard, forcing Terrigal’s Mackenzie Walker to make a terrific save to her right and keeping the score locked at 0-0 after two golden chances early in the contest for the Rams.
After a slow start from Terrigal, the League Champions slowly worked themselves into the game the longer the first half played out with their captain Caitlin McMahon setting the foundations for her side from the backline.
Terrigal thought they had found the opening goal 25 minutes into the contest when a well-delivered cross from a corner saw the East Gosford keeper fumble the first attempt at claiming the ball.
As the ball looked to be heading over the line, Ram’s keeper Chloe Smith pounced on the ball to stop the Tords from taking a 1-0 lead.
Terrigal slowly started to dominate possession and field space, camping East Gosford in their own half for a long period of the first half, but despite a few promising attacks, the Tords struggled to create any goal-scoring opportunities on the East Gosford goal.
The best chance of the entire half for Terrigal came to Candice Phelan who expertly controlled a cross into the box with her chest, setting up a half-volley for herself which was struck well and flew just over the crossbar.
Lucky not to concede, the ball was sent down the other end as Dominello found herself in the box with another great chance on goal as she uncharacteristically stuffed her goal-scoring opportunity again and both sides heading into the break with the score still locked at 0-0.
As the second period commenced, these two extremely even teams once again played end-to-end football, searching for the go-ahead goal. Neither defence was budging, forcing the opposition attackers to take shots from a distance, limiting any one-on-one opportunities.
It was an extremely cagey closing 45 minutes of normal time as both teams looked to attack to break the deadlock but more importantly looked to keep the opposition at bay and not be the ones to concede first as defence looked to be the priority.
With just 10 minutes remaining, the deadlock looked to be broken when the Terrigal defence misjudged a long ball over the top allowing Dominello through on goal as her powerful effort beat the goalkeeper, only to be denied by the woodwork.
The full-time whistle sounded and for the second time in two weeks, these two teams would look to settle the result in extra time.
Last year’s grand final hero for East Gosford Tahlor Thackray once again showed up when it mattered the most. This time for the opposition as the Terrigal midfielder ran onto a bouncing ball in the Rams box and calmly chipped the ball over an oncoming Smith for the game’s first goal, giving Terrigal a 1-0 lead after 105 minutes played.
With the second period of extra time now underway, it was now or never for the Rams who looked for the title of back-to-back Premiers.
However, the experience and quality of Terrigal’s defence reigned supreme as it was evident why this side had only conceded six goals all season, securing a clean sheet after 120 minutes of football as Terrigal were crowned 2024 WPL Premiers after their intense 1-0 victory.
An extremely proud Gab Blanch spoke on the victory. “I want to congratulate East Gosford for their persistence and never-say-die fight today, they absolutely came at us and were unlucky to bag an early goal.”
“For my girls, we know we weren’t at our best, but we did what we’ve done all year and battled like soldiers until we got what we needed. A deserving result for the Tords after a strong season. Shout out to Mackenzie Walker, our Goalkeeper, who, in the eyes of many, was best on the ground today, an absolute weapon of a goalkeeper, one to watch in the future”.
“What a great grand final, what great game with the two best teams of the year going head-to-head in the last game of the season,” said Jorge Chavez.
“This one hurts a little bit, I think we did everything we had to do to win that game three times over unfortunately football is about goals and whoever scores the goals wins and we couldn’t capitalise on our chances, especially in the first half, I felt like we deserve to be at least two or three goals up, but it wasn’t meant to be.”
“Full credit to the Terrigal girls, they kept pushing all the way through, they stayed in the game, and they took advantage of a lapse in concentration and managed to score the winning goal.”
“I’m super proud of the girl’s effort, to play that way in a grand final is not easy, sticking to our guns, I felt like we dominated the majority of the game and were just unlucky not to score.”
“When I came to East Gosford there were a few goals I wanted to achieve, one of them was to create the right culture, a culture where women come play football in a safe, nurturing and inclusive space and I think we achieved that.”
“I’m super proud of what we have achieved over the last five years. I couldn’t be prouder of what we have achieved and I want to thank everybody involved at East Gosford from the committee to all my coaches, and assistant coaches, that I’ve had in the past and present, I’m going to miss it but I’m very proud looking at what we achieved in the past five years.”
Match Official – Hugo Fonseca