The Riverina HART Regional League took place last weekend where six Associations battled it out at the Wagga Wagga Indoor Stadium, where the final day saw the Riverina Champion crowned.
The minor rounds finished with Wagga Wagga undefeated and sitting on top of the table, followed by Young & District, Barellan & District and Griffith rounding out the top 4 heading into the finals series on day two.
Finals day started with the semi-finals and Wagga Wagga dominated Griffith finishing with a final score of 70-28 and securing their spot in the Grand Final to be played later in the day. The second semi-final was a hard-fought battle between second placed Young & District taking on third placed Barellan & District. Both teams were desperate for a Grand Finals berth, fighting to the end, it was Barellan & District who took out the win, by just one point, winning 35-36 and securing a place in the Grand Final.
Onto the Grand Final and Wagga Wagga got off to a great start leading 5-1 in the opening 5 minutes of the game, as Barellan took some time to settle, once settled they pegged back some missed goal opportunities from Wagga, and with some strong rebounding to add points to the board levelling the score 11-all at the end of the first quarter.
Wagga made a shooting position change by adding youngster Kaylah Upfield to GS and moving Reinhold out to GA, which added some extra rotation to their circle movement, whilst starting GA Leila Wadley showed her versatility by moving into the centre position adding extra speed and height to Wagga’s game.
Barellan made one change in the second quarter adding Rio Weidemann into the GD position, her long arms and speed providing some valuable tips on the ball and some nice passages of play down the court, with the half time score Wagga leading 24-22.
Third Quarter Wagga remained unchanged with positions, whilst Barellan made three defensive changes which saw them level the score throughout this quarter and the lead swing back and forth between both teams.
Strong positioning from GS Tess Henley and some accurate shooting helped Barellan build their momentum throughout the third quarter, with Centre court players Abbey Hamblin and Marnie Grintell working consistently to find the circle edge and with accurate feeds into Henley.
Score at the end of the third quarter saw Wagga leading by two goals.
Fourth quarter saw Wagga moved WD player Ashley Reynoldson into GD, and youngster Claudia Wheatley onto the WD position.
Both Wheatley and Reynoldson found their hands to many balls, and some tight defence across the transverse line made it very difficult for Barellan to make a safe passage down to the circle.
Reynoldson and Wheatly where back up well by Tamsyn Goolagong and Leila Wadley picking up the crumbs of their tips to bring the ball swiftly down the court to Wagga shooters, where their accuracy rewarded the Wagga defensive end efforts.
Barellan in the final quarter appeared to run out steam, and they were outscored by Wagga 18 goals to their 8 goals.
The final result saw Wagga Wagga crowned Riverina Champions with a win of 54-42.
Full results can be found here
Regional League is not possible without the team of dedicated umpires officiating matches over the weekend, thank you to all the team in white and a special mention to the Grand Final Umpires Timothy Bacon, Michelle Sardis and Jade Olson, and a special thank you to the Umpire Allocators Sherylle Sheehy, Vicki Kaylock and Dianne Pomeroy who worked with the umpires throughout the competition.
