YOUNG celebrated their first women's success in some time with victory in the Madden Trophy grand final on Sunday.
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A second half double to Laura Atkins helped Young to a 3-1 victory over Henwood Park at Equex Centre.
Young captain Emma Long opened the scoring early in the contest before a long-range beauty from Henwood Park's Gabrielle Knight leveled the scores just before half-time.
It was after the break that Atkins stepped up and took control. She capitalised on a Henwood Park error firstly and then won a penalty, making no mistake, for her second to put Young 3-1 ahead.
Atkins was rewarded for her performance with the Player of the Match award. She was also named Player of the Year.
"The season's been fantastic for the girls. They've done everything I've asked," Young coach Ray Mitchell said.
"Our mantra at the start of the year was just to play smarter. Can you make a smarter run, can you move somewhere better, can you make a smarter pass because they're not boys, but they have believed in themselves and they've got there on yep righto, play smarter. Every decision, just a smarter decision."
Mitchell paid tribute to Atkins, putting her fine season down to being injury free.
"Laura's an absolute athlete. Last year she struggled with injuries, this year she was injury clear. We managed to keep her on the park for the whole 90 minutes basically week in, week out," he said.
He also praised the efforts of his defenders, Sarah Gregory, Tessa Long and Charlotte Doldissen, for their efforts in holding Henwood Park out.
"Our defenders, Tessa Long, she's travelled from Griffith each week, due to work and uni but she's our most experienced back so we wanted her to teach Charlotte, who's only 16, how to do it for when Tessa leaves," Mitchell explained.
"Because we're a small town, we're a revolving door, we have to keep bringing the young ones through because the old ones go to uni. We've got Sarah Gregory, Tessa Long and Charlotte Doldissen as our middle at the back and they just defend their hearts out for 90 minutes. I couldn't be prouder of those three."
Henwood Park were well served by Knight, Jennifer Woodbury and Ashley Garratt in defeat.
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