The Monbulk Women’s footballers have created history by winning the first Senior Women’s premiership for the Monbulk Football Netball Club. This team was formed as a competition side in 2019, when they finished runners-up to Healesville, while the past two seasons’ premierships had been lost to Covid.
Monbulk and Belgrave have been traditional rivals in women’s football and played their first match against each other 75 years ago, almost to the day, on August 10 1947. The two clubs met quite a few times in challenge matches in the ensuing decades with Brownlow Medallist Bob Skilton even umpiring one fundraising clash in 1959.
The modern rivalry between the Monbulk and Belgrave women’s teams has led to a number of thrilling clashes and, heading into the Division 2 Grand Final, Belgrave were leading the ledger 2-1 for the current season. The game was played on the Belgrave Oval in cold and rainy conditions, which made the ball slippery. A large crowd assembled as the game kicked off. Monbulk was first to go forward and scored a behind soon after the start but Belgrave replied quickly with two goals, which were worth their weight in gold in the conditions, and looked to set the Magpies up for the match. Just on the quarter-time siren Kathryn Gow nailed a long goal to lift the belief and confidence of the Hawks.
Monbulk carried on their relentless pressure game and scored twice in the second term into the breeze while restricting Belgrave to a single behind and held a six-point buffer heading into the long break. If the third quarter is known as the premiership quarter then things bode well for the Hawks as they added a fourth goal, through the agency of another long goal to Gow, while again holding Belgrave to a point. The Magpies put in a determined last quarter, which yielded a goal, but the tight Hawks defence refused to let through any other scores as they held on to claim their first premiership by a single straight kick.
