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Irish success in VWFL Premier Division Grand Final

  • Tuesday, August 28 2012 @ 06:36 pm ACST
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Article written by Leiha Shrubsall

Laura Corrigan (Co. Cavan, Ireland.) played in her 4th VWFL grand final with Diamond Creek last weekend. She is the only Irish player in the premier division of the VWFL and now has made Irish history again by being the first to secure a VWFL Grand Final medal. Laura was also a key player in the winning Irish Banshees International Cup side and also made the ‘World Team’ of the competition. Laura has also represented the Victorian Country team.

Now finally she has the VFWL Premiership Cup aka ‘the holy grail’ in her hands too.

Although it was not televised, it was streamed on you tube so a few of us were able to get up early on Saturday morning to watch it!

I was lucky enough to get an EXCLUSIVE interview with her, well done to her and the ‘Creekers’ on a historic Grand Final win:

‘Melbourne is the home of Aussie Rules. Everyone gets involves. It’s like a religion for many. I have played for the 5 years I have lived in Melbourne. This was my fourth grand-final but my first win. We started pre-season in November. Two nights a week on the field and one night a week at our local athletics track with a specialist running coach. I think this was the first year we really believed we could do it. Even after losing to Darebin both home and away during the year, the belief was still there.’

‘Over the past couple of weeks we have had a couple of great motivational speakers/ AFL legends come out and speak to us. Terry Wallace and Tony Shaw both local men who spoke about how we were now representing them and that if and when we won we would never forget the people we did it with.’

‘A new coach and lots of new young fit players made a big difference. Everyone competing for a place on the team, right up to the grand final, made sure no one took their foot off the pedal till after the final siren on Saturday. It was an amazing feeling to win the grand final with such an awesome group of girls, we are like a big family.’

‘My family still live in Ireland but I was very lucky to have the support of my Montmorency South P.S. work colleagues and a number of students from my class come to support me on the day.’

Laura (pictured number 19 after the IC11 win) is just one of many Irish ladies playing aussie rules in Australia. With sister teams in NSW (Sydney Shamrocks) and in Victoria (Bendigo Thunder), Irish Banshees future looks bright.

Back home in Ireland the local ladies league is also growing with a solid base now in Dublin (Dublin Angels) and in Belfast (Kookaburras), and now growing in Cork and Galway, you can expect the next Irish Euro cup team to be a serious threat as they lead the way in Europe with 2 wins 0 loses.

If you want to have a go Aussie Rules in Ireland you can join us by going to www.arfli.com for more information.