2010 Vawdon Cup Finals Results
After a week of rain, the New South Wales Touch Association did a fantastic job to get the fields looking as good as they did. Please find the scores for all of the divisions below:
Men’s Premier League
Hornsby Lions 7 defeated Penrith Panthers 6
Player of the Final: Dylan Hennessey (Hornsby Lions)
Women’s Premier League
Wollongong Devils 10 defeated Wests Magpies 4
Player of the Final: Nicole Beck (Wollongong Devils)
Mixed Premier League
Easts Roosters 5 defeated Central Coast Dolphins 4
Player of the Final:
Men’s: Manu Wakely (Easts Roosters)
Women’s: Liz Wilbow (Central Coast Dolphins)
Women’s Development League
Manly Sea Eagles 4 defeated Easts Roosters 2
Men’s Division One
Bankstown Jets 10 defeated Penrith Panthers 6
Women’s Division One
Campbelltown Ghosts 4 defeated Varsity Stingers 3
Men’s Division Two
Hornsby Lions 6 defeated Liverpool Lightning 5
Women’s Division Two
Manly Sea Eagles 4 defeated Ryde Eastwood Hawks 2
Men’s Division Three
Penrith Panthers 5 defeated Hills Hornets 2
Men’s Masters
Wests Magpies (1) 6 defeated Penrith Panthers (1) 5
Women’s Premier League
The Wollongong Devils have defeated Wests Magpies 10-4 to claim their first Women’s Premier League Vawdon Cup final.
After being promoted to the Premier League division three seasons ago, the Devils came from fifth place on the ladder to take the win.
Led by current Australian Women’s Open squad members Ashleigh Dobbins, Jessica McCall and Nicole Beck, the Wollongong side are now looking for the double, next month’s New South Wales State Cup title.
The Devils were on the scoreboard early, when Nicole Beck scored a length of the field intercept touchdown to give her side a 1-0 lead.
Jessica McCall made it 2-0 one minute later, capitalising on a penalty close to their attacking line, diving over to give her side their second touchdown.
Back-to-back penalties gave Wollongong good field position and in the ninth minute a Nicole Beck long ball gave Leah Hayes her first touchdown, and gave the Devils a 3-0 lead.
Strong Wollongong defence kept the Magpies off the scoreboard until the 15th minute, when Nicky Albery dived over to score following back-to-back sets of six to take the score to 3-1.
Wollongong’s Kristen Whittacker scored her first touchdown on the half-time siren to give her side a 4-1 lead at the break.
It only took two minutes into the second half for the Devils to further extend their lead, when a Melissa McCall long ball set up Hayes for her second touchdown, to take the score to 5-1.
Australian Women’s Open squad member Nicole McHugh led by example for Wests in the fourth minute, diving over the line to bring her team back to within three touchdowns, 5-2.
Whittaker scored her second touchdown of the game one minute later, when the Devils created an overlap to take a 6-2 lead.
The Devils soon took their lead out to five touchdowns when Bianca Mounsey dived over in the corner in the eighth minute to give her side a 7-2 advantage.
Some fancy footwork by Whittaker in the 11th minute gave her a hat trick of touchdowns and helped further extend her teams lead, 8-2.
A good half run set up the Magpies’ Tara Mohi to score in the 16th minute off the back of a penalty close to their attacking line to bring the score back to 8-3.
Two quick touchdowns to the Devils, through Rachel Beck and Melissa McCall, gave their team a 10-3 lead.
Wests’ Elisha Dougal scored in the 19th minute to bring the margin back to six touchdowns, but it wasn’t enough, with the Devils taking a 10-4 win.
Wollongong Captain, Ashleigh Dobbins, was ecstatic about the win, paying tribute to her side that has played together for several years.
“We’re very excited, we’ve played together for a long time, since we were 15 or 16, so we’ve been together for a long time.”
“Last week was amazing, we were scared that last week we played our grand final, but we had another one in us and it gives us confidence for State Cup as well,” Dobbins said.
“We’re great friends inside and outside of Touch so we are really, really happy.”
The Devils’ Jessica McCall was proud of her team’s performance and can’t wait to go for the double in Port Macquarie at the start of next month.
“I think it’s just amazing, this feeling isn’t going to go away for a couple of weeks. It’s such a good lead up to State Cup, it’s probably the best lead up we’ve ever had. So I’m looking forward to going for the double,” McCall said.
Men’s Premier League
The Hornsby Lions have beaten a fast finishing Penrith Panthers side to win the 2010 Men’s Premier League Vawdon Cup final.
The Lions, who finished fifth in the regular season, won back the title they last won in 2008, taking the game 7-6.
Hornsby was the first team to score, with Nathan Wong diving over the line in the first minute to give his side a 1-0 lead.
Penrith hit back in the next minute, with Matt Moylan sliding over the line to level the scores at 1-all.
Hornsby’s Tom Hillard gave his side the lead in the sixth minute, when the Lions capitalised on an overlap, with Hillard scoring in the corner.
The Panthers levelled the score four minutes later, when Matt Moylan set up captain Nick Good’s touchdown to bring the game to two touchdowns all.
Hornsby hit back in the 11th minute, with Joseph Tarau scoring, and they took their lead out to two touchdowns when Hillard scored his second to give his side a 4-2 advantage.
The teams traded touchdowns in the final minutes of the first half, with the Panthers Dean McKechine scoring in the 19th minute, while the Lions hit back in the final minute of the half through Michael Abood to take a two touchdown lead into half time, 5-3.
The Lions were in again in just the second minute of the second half, when some good footwork from captain Dylan Hennessey gave them a three touchdown advantage.
Two touchdowns in the space of three minutes put Penrith back into the game, with Nick Good and Daniel Springfield scoring, to hit back to within one touchdown.
Potatau Berryman scored for the Lions in the 14th minute to take his side’s lead to two touchdowns, before the Panthers’ Dean Springfield’s touchdown in the next set brought the game to seven touchdowns to six.
The Panthers tried hard to level the score in the dying minutes, with plenty of possession close to the line, but strong Hornsby defence kept them out, with the Lions taking the title with the one touchdown win.
Hennessey, who was named Player of the Final, was proud of his team’s achievements, but admits they were lucky to take the title over a strong Penrith side. He says that the title win was due to the side playing as a team.
“It’s our second win now, we are missing two of our boys so we just came up and lifted for them, we were lucky to get away with it.”
“With our team we don’t know if we are going to play on the day or not or if the boys are going to turn up but today we turned up and decided to play so we were lucky with that,” he said.
The win is a good lead up for the Hornsby side who are looking to put back-to-back titles together at this year’s New South Wales State Cup after winning the title over the Panthers in 2009.
“It would be sensational (to win), we are not even thinking about that at the moment, we’ve just got to get to the semis and the finals and hopefully we can get there,” Hennessey said.
Images supplied by Sporting Images.
