Terry Mahoney stood to the side and looked on at his Mooroopna outfit with nothing short of supreme satisfaction after its Northern Country Women’s League premiership success at Deakin Reserve on Sunday night. Like a new father in the delivery room after the safe arrival of his first-born, Mahoney’s glee was tapered just enough as to not bubble over into giddy delight, but his eyes betrayed the blossoming pride underneath his calm exterior. And make no mistake — while the Cats were the ones putting their bodies on the line against the might of Echuca out on the field, the eventual 18-point triumph they secured to claim Mooroopna’s first senior football premiership since 1986 had ‘‘Mahoney Masterclass’’ written all over it. Not only did he move the magnets with military-like precision and stir the competitive juices of his troops with well-directed speeches on game day, Mahoney had to also build the Cats towards success from the ground up this season. ‘‘We only had three players in February and we were tossing up whether we paid the league fees or whether we called it quits,’’ Mahoney said. ‘‘We sent out a message and said look you’ve got to get down to training in the next week or that will be it, it’s our last minute go at it, and we got a few down. ‘‘Over the season we had more and more join us and we ended up with about 35 players. ‘‘A lot hadn’t played footy before, but it was all about inclusiveness, and the girls had to learn to kick and mark and all the different rules, but we went through and won a couple of games. ‘‘Then we got a bit of momentum and just made the finals and you’ve seen what’s happened in the last three weeks — so well done to the Mooroopna Women’s Football Club.’’
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Once the Cats made the big dance there was still the small matter of trying to knock the Murray Bombers off of their perch atop the competition. But Mahoney had a plan for that too. ‘‘We probably didn’t have as much talent as Echuca,’’ he said. ‘‘But what we did have was players that were prepared to do anything that they could for the team and to work within their limitations, so it meant that we could put in a good game plan. ‘‘We got a good start in the first quarter so we were able to play a spare person in the second quarter when we were kicking against the wind. ‘‘Then we attacked again in the third quarter and everything fell our way and we ended up four goals in front which meant again we were able to put one or two defensive players in the backline in the last quarter and try and make it a slogfest just to stop scoring. The tactics worked our way in the situation as they did against Shepparton the week before and that’s what football is all about.’’
Throwing your two main attacking targets — Kiara Cooper and Brittany Tancred — into defence with the game on the line was a bold move, but Mahoney embraced the old adage of putting your best players where the wind was blowing and letting the rest take care of itself. It was a tactic which delivered in spades and ensured the Cats will likely never struggle for numbers again in Mahoney’s time at the helm. ‘‘When you see success and see how inclusive the club is it sends out a signal to everyone in the district to say well if I’m going to think about playing football this is a club that I can come along and learn something, and maybe achieve something,’’ he said. ‘‘Not everyone wins, whether you’ve won a premiership doesn’t define whether you’ve had a good time or had a good season, but there is the opportunity there and I think it will be a great beacon for people to come along to. ‘‘I love coaching, I’ve been coaching for 20 years and I must say that coaching the women this year has been right up there with every other job that I’ve done. ‘‘It’s as good as coaching senior men’s football or the pure joy you get from coaching junior football. ‘‘All the girls are incredibly enthusiastic, they have some terrific skills, but to see the improvement of the girls over such a short period of time — I think the AFL has just scraped the surface in terms of what women can do in the sport — I think it will become a mainstream sport before too long.’’
