After one of the most remarkable post-season runs in Premier League Hockey history, Pete Shea's CYMS are the champions.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The green and golds achieved the unthinkable on Saturday, knocking off perennial powerhouse Lithgow in a dominant 4-1 grand final display.
The triumph marks the the club's first premiership breakthrough since 2002, an achievement the mentor couldn't be prouder of.
"All the superlatives fail me," Shea said.
"We were so composed, and we never let up the entire time. The old cliche is that you save your best game for the grand-final, and that's what we did today."
The away side had the match by the scruff of the neck before Panthers could blink, as they netted two goals in the first term, the first through Phoebe Litchfield and the second through Courtney Hogan.
Addi Chapman struck in the shadows of half-time, allowing CYMS to take a 3-0 advantage into the sheds.
Coaches often worry about their players dropping off after half-time, but this bunch did the opposite.
It was only two minute into the second-half when they scored again through Madie Smith, and even though stacks of time remained on the clock, it never felt like Lithgow would peg them back.
"It was such a high quality performance," he said.
"To do what we did today against a team as good as Lithgow, you couldn't script that.
"But, that's the character of players that we have in our team. Everyone played their role. We played on Wednesday night and had the confidence to play out of our skins today."
In order to win a decider in the way CYMS did, everyone needed to stand up. But, one woman had a career-best performance on Saturday.
"Courtney Hogan was amazing," he said.
"She played so well and so dominantly. For her to do that in a grand-final is an amazing achievement.
"It's almost as if she had some sort of personal vendetta to win the game. She did everything in her powers to keep control of that game."
What people might forget is CYMS were within a whisker of missing finals contention as they were the clear-cut outsider to make any noise in the semis.
"We were one result away from not even making the finals," he said.
"We played brilliantly against St Pat's and then against United. It was a bit hard with such a short turnaround.
"But we spoke about the character of players we have in our team and what kind of role everyone needs to play. Everyone played those roles perfectly."
To add some context to the size of the upset, Lithgow finished the season with 10 wins, two losses and two draws, conceding just 18 goals all season. They finished the campaign with 44 competition points, and won the grand-final at this very venue last season against St Pat's.
You could have maybe sold someone into thinking CYMS would win, but a 4-1 result shapes as an upset of the year candidate... not just in the Premier League Hockey competition, but all sports in the Central West.
CYMS 4 (Phoebe Litchfield, Madie Smith, Courtney Hogan, Addi Chapman) def Lithgow Panthers 1.
Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can continue to access our trusted content:
- Bookmark www.centralwesterndaily.com.au
- Make sure you are signed up for our breaking and regular headlines newsletters
- Follow us on Twitter
- Follow us on Instagram
- Catch up on our news headlines at Google News
HAVE YOUR SAY
- Send us a letter to the editor using the form below ...