By Tallon Smith

The Binalong Jersey Girls have completed one of the more spectacular fairytale runs to win the Monaro Knockout in Batemans Bay after a 22-10 defeat of the Eden Tigers in the Cup Final on Saturday afternoon.

The side won their opening match on Friday night 6-4 over Bega to progress through to Saturday’s Cup tournament, where they swept aside Darlington Point-Coleambally Roosters 32-0 before taking out the tournament with a 22-10 extra time win over Eden in the Final.

Binalong Brahmans President Ben Spencer said that the win was an amazing feat for the small-town club, who beat many much bigger teams en route to taking out the title.

“We sort of went down there with no expectations, with either the Men’s or the Ladies League Tag, and then for the girls to come away the winners of the whole thing, the main Cup trophy, it was pretty special for them, individually, and for the club as well,” he said.

“Coming away from a season off, pretty much our first trial back, the girls have only just started training four weeks ago.

“The first week that we started training we got the new coach so she hasn’t had a lot of time to build either, so to head down there and win that is amazing.”

The Cup Final was quite an eventful and spectacular match, with the Jersey Girls taking the win in unorthodox fashion after an unbelievable turn of events including a scoring mishap and extra time being required.

“I think [in] the Final they did get a bit nervous, the first 10 minutes they didn’t drop any balls but their attack wasn’t as good as the [Semi Final], but once they got into a bit of a routine they put it on,” Spencer said.

“It was a draw at full time, [and] they actually thought that Eden had won, but they missed a goal that the Jersey Girls kicked.

“It was actually 10-all and they thought it was 10-8, so we had to petition that [so] the referees knew it was 10-all.

“[In] the regular games it’s the first team that scores [that wins in the event of a draw], and Eden scored first, but in the finals it’s not golden point but extra time, so it went into extra time and our girls defended really well and then got one try, and [another] on the hooter to take the win.”

Spencer said one main feature of the team’s win was their amazing ball handling, which was a key ingredient in their upset win against Darlington Point-Coleambally in the Semi Final.

The game against the Roosters they just didn’t drop the ball, they only dropped one ball all game

They only dropped three balls the whole weekend, so their ball handling was on point from the first game to the last game, so four games with three dropped balls is pretty good in any team, let alone a new team like this

“Against the Roosters they just put it together, they sort of got a roll on there and the Roosters couldn’t stop their attack.”

After spending last year in recess, the Brahmans are back in the George Tooke Shield in 2024, and the club is looking healthy going into the new season, with strong player numbers across both the Men’s and Women’s teams.

“We were pretty lucky with signing our coaches again from our 2013 to 2015 run, obviously there’s a bit more age there now, but they still have good contacts with that same sort of group of players, plus a few extra young fellas that were playing Youth League when they were coaching the Seniors, so they’ve come back as well,” Spencer said.

“So there’s still some youth there, there’s a really good feel around the club, especially now with the girls winning that Cup and the boys going down there and only losing both games by four points.

“So yeah, we’re definitely aiming to be around for a few more years and be successful again.”

The Men’s team were gallant in their performances, and although they lost both their games, 10-6 to Mount Warrigal and 10-4 to Molong, the weekend was a valuable hit out ahead of their return campaign.

The Men’s Knockout itself was won by Merimbula-Pambula, who defeated Avondale in the Final.