WARATAH coach Rena Spears believes young local netball shooters Jacoba Clough and Georgia Reed will move up the ranks quickly in the future, after they both starred in her side's 36-35 grand final win last Saturday.
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Its was first place versus second place in the Queanbeyan Netball Association division one grand final between the Jerra Joeys and Waratah, and despite a thrilling fourth quarter come-back from Jerra, Waratah held on for an intense win.
But both Clough and Reed were inspirational in the performance, withstanding Jerra's committed defence to shoot most of their side's goals under pressure, and Spears was extremely proud of their effort.
"They did an exceptional job when you consider that Jacoba is only 15 years old and Georgia is 16," Spears said.
"They were under a lot of pressure and the defenders were very physical, so they [Clough and Reed] held themselves up well."
Both girls participated in the South East Regional Netball Academy this year, and also play in Queanbeyan Netball's ACT State League division four side, which is currently in its Spring season.
But Spears said she would like to see them progress to either division one or two in the ACT league when it starts again in March next year.
"They should be moving through to State League on Friday nights come March next year," she said.
Meanwhile Spears said her side had better discipline than Jerra in the grand final, and that was what got her girls over the line.
"It was nail biting. To Jerra's credit they fought back and made it a one-point ball game," Spears said.
Jerra coach and captain Laura Gow said such a close loss was hard to take for her girls, but admitted Waratah were not particularly better on the day in any given part of the court.
"We both probably had our ups and our downs," Gow said.
"We had plays that were excellent, and other plays where we threw the ball away and made our own unforced errors."
"The momentum had shifted back to us in the last quarter, but unfortunately we just ran out of time."
Being down by seven goals at one stage, Gow was proud of her girls' comeback.
She plans to stay as captain and coach next season.