Well, Mount Gravatt Senior Women played the last game of the season today against Redlands and we lost 2-1.
It's been a bloody marvellous season, too. I've enjoyed every minute, and would happily coach the same team again in 2009, if circumstances permit. I'm trying not to patronize this forum's female contingent when I say that one of the pleasures of coaching women is that they listen.
They then put into practice what you've preached, and get results!
We end up finishing fifth, I believe, in a league of ten teams, and that is a great achievement because we are a team who did not borrow from our club's Premier league senior or Reserve ranks all season - we used our own players throughout, even though we came up against other clubs who (when the thought of not making the semis stared them in the face) "stacked" their teams with higher division players - sometimes these teams were almost unrecognizeable from the first round.
It got quite emotional in the dressing room after the game tonight, I was asked to state quite bluntly whether I would or would not be coaching Senior Womens football at the club next season? The reason being if I did not, the team would come to whichever club I was going to!
Talk about validation.
I had to be honest and say that I couldn't actually commit to anything in 2009 this early in 2008, I needed time to figure what my sons were doing next year. I had missed a lot of their games to my commitment to the womens team (I hadn't missed a match all season) and anyway, how could any of the team guarantee THEY would be there next season?
We've agreed to wait until Feb 2009 to see how the land lies.
In the meantime, the team clubbed together to buy my wife and I tickets (to accompany the team) to the Queensland Roar game next week. We're football tragics, so it was the best present to give us. We'll have a few beers after the game and draw a line under this season. A very enjoyable adventure it was, too. I promise I'll post the team photo when we get issued one, soon.
