Demons cut giants down to size
Originally published in Dubbo Photo News
The Dubbo Demons have proven their win against the Giants was no fluke, beating them by five goals at their home ground.
The Giants women’s team hasn’t lost at George Park in Bathurst since 2018, but a strong Demons outfit put an end to their long home-ground streak.
Coming out of the gates strong the Demons kicked an early goal to get on the board first and never let the Giants get ahead.
Coach Peter Martinoli said the result was probably unexpected, but a strong travelling side from Dubbo resulted in evenly placed teams.
“The Giants are always strong in Bathurst, but this week both teams had their full strength, them with 19 players and us with 18, so it was very evenly matched.”
Martinoli said it was a strong team performance across the board to keep ahead and lock down the Giants.
“It was one of those games where it was just a great four-quarter performance from 16 players on the field playing their best. It was just such a team effort, and to beat them at their home ground as well just made it even better.”
The Demons lost Claire Joshua in the second quarter to a knee injury but the team didn’t falter.
Martinoli said he’d placed an emphasis on belief to the team in preparation for the game.
“The girls had that belief going onto the field. That was something that I was trying to sort of instil from the get-go because we are the team that has beaten them, can beat them, and eventually did beat them.
“It was just all about driving that belief. Belief in your own ability, belief in the player next to you, belief in the team.”
Martinoli said he’d been conscious of the Giants track record, after their narrow victory over the bottom-of-the-ladder Orange Tigers a fortnight ago. He said he was conscious to not let the team fall into the trap of thinking of the team as unbeatable.
“Part of it was looking at recent results as well, with Orange last week pushing them. Unfortunately, when it came to it they just lost to them, but it showed the fact that anyone can push them.”
Making the victory even sweeter was the celebration of key forward Lauren Hazell’s 200th goal.
In a massive six-goal game, Hazell was unaware the milestone was coming up and Martinoli said he’d made a conscious decision to not tell her she was close.
“I think it’s one of those milestones that’s probably often overlooked but 200 goals in this women’s comp is an extraordinary effort. I don’t know too many players in the competition who actually notched up 200, so it’s obviously something that she’s worked hard at over her career,” said Martinoli.
“We knew she was sort of on 197 but we didn’t really want to tell her because we didn’t want her to get in her head about it and start thinking ‘I need to kick three goals here to bring that up’.”
Hazell said she was glad she didn’t know it was coming and was surprised at first when her teammates started celebrating.
“I was wondering what was happening when I heard everyone cheering and celebrating that little bit extra. [I was thinking] like, I’ve already kicked a couple goals today.
“I had no idea until someone said to me ‘you’ve kicked 200 goals.’ I never thought it was going to happen because I don’t keep track of those things.”
Hazell has taken on a new role in the forward line this year that has seen her kicking less goals.
“I’ve actually enjoyed it even more personally; I just get so much more satisfaction in doing that little chip over to a mark to get a quick goal. I love setting someone up for their first goal.”
The Demons are now looking ahead to the run home, with only two away games left in their season.
In the women’s competition the Dubbo Demons 9.5.59 defeated Bathurst Giants 4.2.26. Meanwhile the men’s tier one team went down 7.8.50 to Bathurst Giants 18.14.122. Over in Cowra the tier two men lost 6.2.38 to Cowra Blues 13.10.88.
This weekend all three Dubbo teams will play the Orange Tigers at Waratah Sports Ground, where the Tigers will be celebrating their 40th anniversary.