beating Smash Ups 54-22 on Friday night at the Ward Oval courts.
Divas recorded a comprehensive 54-22 win over Smash Ups in the 2025 Senior Netball grand final at Ward Oval on Friday night.
The two teams met in last year’s grand final with the same outcome, Divas also won that match, 50-39.
However this year’s win for Divas seemed to come a bit easier.
From the outset on Friday night they owned the game with Divas’ strong centre court players, Ethan McLeod (playing in Centre), Lauren Urquhart (Goal Attack), Amie Hill (Goal Defence), Rori Urquhart (Wing Attack) and Marybeth Lowe (Wing Defence) calling all the shots.
In attack, Divas were fast and efficient in getting the ball to their goal shooters, Lauren Urquhart and Briana Coffey (GS), who quickly gained their shooting confidence to give their team a commanding 16-4 lead by the end of the first quarter.
With plenty of pressure in defence and multiple intercepts throughout the mid court, Divas provided very limited opportunities for Smash Ups’ shooters Emma Harley (GA) and Mollie McAndrew (GS) to score and, it wasn’t until eight minutes into the game, that they were able to record their first points.
Divas’ tactics to disrupt and interrupt Smash Ups’ normal style of play continued to bother Smash Ups throughout the first three quarters of the game.
Smash Ups, with plenty of subs on the bench, tried different attacking combinations and it wasn’t until the final quarter that they started to play themselves back into the match.
Peta Woods took over the lead shooting role in the second half for Smash Ups and her strong rebounding and more aggressive style of play, gave them more opportunities at goal.
Playing their own game, Smash Ups then started to match Divas all up and down the court, however by that stage, the deficit was too large to rein in.
Divas also continued to show no mercy and closed out the match with a comprehensive 32 point win.
Divas’ shooter Lauren Urquhart, who finished the match with a tally of 33 goals (from all over the circle), earned the umpires’ Player of the Grand Final honour.
The club will hold their end of season presentations this Saturday with Best & Fairest, Sportsmanship and the Larnie Keen Club Person of the Year winners to be announced.
