Bathurst’s Panorama Platypi fulfilled their dream of winning four Western Women’s Rugby League (WWRL) titles in a row with a 32-18 win over the Wiradjuri Goannas from Dubbo on Saturday.
“It’s absolutely huge … the relief from doing that four-peat as well as the excitement of doing it, is massive,” coach Kevin Grimshaw told nswrl.com.au
“We tried to not put too much pressure on ourselves but we also didn’t want to hide the fact we were going for four. We just decided to play some footy and see if it happened or not.”
Grimshaw said there was only three players who had been part of all four victories (2021-24).
“The roll-over of women has been good in the sense that it means our Under 18s players coming through get the chance to be part of the first grade side,” he said.
“They know there’s an avenue for them when they finish the age-group competition. Our focus has been to bring the 18s through. They now know what it takes to be successful.”
Grimshaw said it wasn’t just the four-peat that resonated with the players. A former teammate had died earlier in the month and he said the players wanted to remember her too.
“We didn’t just stay in the dressing shed, we went back out to the middle and I had an esky full of beer, which I wheeled out.
“We sat on the halfway line and we all had a yarn about what it all meant to us.”
Grimshaw praised the Goannas giving their all to the game.
“It was a very physical game, which we knew it would be. We prepared our best for that because they’re a good side that likes to roll up their sleeves and come through the middle at you,” he said.
The Platypi were up 24-4 at halftime but Grimshaw had his message prepared.
“I told them ‘Don’t get complacent because you know what they can do’. They had little momentum in the first half and we knew it would change.
“And it did for a 15-minute window after the kick-off for the second half. They were making easy metres.
“That made me a little nervous as it’s hard to sustain defence for lengthy periods.”
But Platypi fullback Tiana Anderson, who was later awarded Player of the Match, and halfback Sarah Colman started to work their magic again and with 10 minutes to play, the Bathurst team was home.
Anderson played for Western Rams in the NSWRL’s Women’s Country Championships earlier this year and from that win over the North Coast Bulldogs, she made the NSW Country side.
