Shepparton United goal shooter Jessie Barnes may have taken out the Wellman Family Medal by eight votes last week ahead of Seymour defender Meg Grbac, but in Sunday’s Goulburn Valley League A-grade netball grand final, it was Grbac and the Lions who laid claim to the holiest of grails; the premiership flag.
Seymour had arguably the best defence in the league this season, with Grbac combining with Sarah Szczykulski and Nakita Singe in conceding the least amount of goals.
And with Elle McDonald lending her efforts to the cause through her centre post, Grbac said it came as quite the surprise to be singled out in the league best-and-fairest count.
“I didn’t even expect it when they told me I had to attend (the count),” Grbac said.
“I think it’s honestly a team effort. The four of us (Szczykulski, Singe, McDonald) all together, it’s the reason I’m able to do what I do.
“Because I know I’ve got such good people backing me up it makes it easier for me to come off and take some intercepts.”
And it's a team achievement Grbac can now look back on with pride after Seymour bested Barnes' United in the decider.
“It’s amazing. From the start of the year, we really believed we could do it,” Grbac said.
“It was just a matter of putting the hard yards in and getting it done.
“I think we came into some really good form at the right time of the year.”
And with the mouth-watering prospect of Grbac coming up against Barnes in the ring, though not directly, it again showed the strength of Seymour's collective defensive efforts to win out against the Demons' attack.
“I’ve played on Jessie a bit, she's the toughest you’ll come up against,” Grbac said.
“But my focus today wasn’t about focusing just on her.
“We approached it like every other game, just to come in and work as a team and do what we needed to do.”