Having defeated South Melbourne Womens FC 1-0 in the Grand Final, the feeling in the Sandringham camp was one of jubilation for all involved.
“It’s incredible, it’s actually unreal. It’s still not sinking in,” said Nicola Prins, who scored the winning goal.
It was scored in the fourth minute of stoppage time, and as the chance presented itself to Prins, she produced a wonderful lob to beat South Melbourne goalkeeper Cassie Dimovski.
“It was a bit of a shambles so I just didn’t know where I was. I saw the ball coming so I just stuck my foot out and hoped for the best and I chipped it. Who would’ve thought [it’d work],” Prins said.
Sandringham coach Shaun Parton was also delighted with being champions and credited his squad for all the work they have put in throughout the year.
“I’m pretty goddamn happy and really not for myself but I’m so happy for the players and the hard work. We’ve been going for ten months – that’s ten months of hard work,” Parton said.
Parton even spared some sympathy for the South Melbourne, as the minor premiers had seen themselves fall at the final hurdle.
“I’ve got some sympathy for South Melbourne because I can see how great a season they had. But it all just comes down to the one game and how lucky were we, in some way. That last chance [was] in the last minute, so they didn’t have a chance to get back in the game,” he said.
For Prins, the result was a clear example of how fortune can desert even the best of teams in football, and you just never really know what the result will be until the final whistle is blown.
“For us to come out on top in the grand final just shows that it is anyone’s game,” she said.
“All credit to South Melbourne they’re a fantastic team, and they got the names too. I think because we’re all a bit no-namers, we’re the underdogs which makes it a little bit more special for us.
“But fantastic effort by South Melbourne for sure. They definitely deserved to win the title because they were a lot more consistent than most other teams this season.
None of this would have eventuated, had Prins stayed at Casey Comets. According to Parton, the forward had deliberated whether to make the move to Sandringham and it her final decision has been vindicated.
“She was unsure about whether to leave Casey and come across. She eventually did and she loves it here now,” Parton said.
“She’s a first timer in a Grand Final and a winner, she’s getting married in a few weeks time too so look at her she’s a very excited girl!”
Another of the standouts in the Grand Final on Sunday was stand-in goalkeeper Lucy Kapusta. After pulling off some match winning saves, the natural defender felt ready coming into the game, and thoroughly enjoyed it.
“I’ve had a bit of warm-up coming into it, I’ve probably played the last six, seven weeks in goals so I guess I was warming into the position and thankfully it worked out well,” Kapusta said.
“I was pretty lucky and fortunate that things went my way and a lot of the rebounds and saves I was able to pull off so I’m extremely happy.”
One of the main motivations for winning this grand final was the loss to South Melbourne back in the 2011 edition, and to Kapusta and Parton who experienced that setback, it made this success all the more sweet.
“I’ve played in lots of Finals football and never managed to win one so today was just extremely extraordinary, the girls did amazing and they worked very hard,” Kapusta said.
“Yeah [it spurred me on] and to be honest with you I thought it was pretty even. I thought extra time and geez here we go it’s going to be a battle of attrition,” Parton said.
“Two years ago, I thought we were the better team that day. Today it was even Stevens. They hit the post, had a couple of chances, maybe they might’ve been fractionally ahead of us but that’s soccer though. Soccer’s not fair. I’ve been here for a while!”
The club were rocked in mid-week with the unfortunate news of the passing of club president John Hurley, and it played it’s part in adding more motivation for Sandringham to win the big match.
“We just spoke about it at training and the sort of man he was, the hard work that he put into everything in his life. So it deliberately wasn’t mentioned today but during the week it was mentioned when we were made aware of the bad news, and his wife and kids are here today and we’ll take the trophy to his funeral on Wednesday, hopefully it would be a good thing,” Parton said.
“All the girls have really devoted this victory to him because he was a great man at our club.”
Prins weighed in with an anecdote of her own, explaining that winning the title was exactly what Hurley wanted.
“Shaun went to visit him the night before he passed away and said that his dying wish was for us to win, so we obviously had to do something special today to succeed that for him. It all went to plan which is great so hopefully he’s having a beer or two up there for us,” she said.
With everything out of the way, it’s time for celebration for the club, one thing Parton was looking forward to.
“I’m pretty happy, the girls are pretty happy, I may even have a beer or ten tonight,” he said.
And the feeling was probably best summed up by Kapusta, as she looked back on what was a really successful year.
“We’re overwhelmed and it’s taking a while to sink in that we’ve actually done the double and we’ve won so 2013 was an extremely lucky year for us and we’ve all worked very hard for it,” she said.