It was a highly successful day for the girls, who came away from the tournament as the newly-named Plate Champions. 

Dirty Reds player Bella Sheen said she was “really proud” of the girls in the team for rallying and producing high-quality football despite a number of unforeseen changes to the side. 

“I wasn’t expecting when we went down to Wagga to win the cup or the plate because we’ve been playing for a few years and haven’t quite seen the results that we’ve wanted to see,” Sheen said. 

“But this year our hard work’s finally paying off.” 

Before the tournament, the Dirty Reds lost nearly half of their team due to prior commitments and injuries, meaning that they were left with a squad made up largely of forwards, and lacked substitutes. 

This resulted in a number of the girls playing in various positions across the day; Sheen herself played between fly-half and centre for most of the games on Saturday. 

The Dirty Reds played five matches in total, and finished with three wins, one loss, and one draw. 

The team first played the Bungendore Mudchicks and won comfortably, and they followed that up with a hard-fought loss to the Gungahlin Eagles (who were the eventual Cup Champions).

The third and final match of the pool stages was against the South Coast Marlins, which resulted in a draw.

Following the mixed results of their early matches, Sheen said the team began to hit their stride and play their best football once the finals rolled around. 

“Definitely in our last two games we played our best,” Sheen said. 

“The team that we took away to Wagga was basically a team full of forwards, so we had to figure out how to use that to our advantage … in the second two games it really clicked for us.” 

Goulburn played Wagga Ag College in the semifinal and Batemans Bay in the final, and finished on top of the pile as the Plate Champions with a cheque for $250. 

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