Erin Naden claims player of the match honours after winning her third premiership in a year

Naden produced another starring performance for Panorama Platypi in the Western Women's Rugby League grand final, claiming player of the match honours in her side's victory.

The fullback managed to cross for one try but it was her defensive work that shone for the premiers, with organisation from the back stopping the Goannas in its tracks on many occasions.

Naden said her side's defensive steel all came from work done on the training paddock.

"Right from the start of the season we had Kurt Hancock come out and help us with our defence," she said.

"That continued on right up until our very last training session where we worked on our defensive structure.

"We had the attacking skills but defence is what we worked on pretty much all season."

The player of the match added despite the 10-point margin in the end, the game was always a battle.

"I'm feeling not too bad, pretty sore to be honest," she said.

"It was a pretty hard game, the Goannas came out and put some pretty big hits on us."

The grand final win caps off a stunning year for Naden after she won the Group 10 league tag premiership with Bathurst St Pat's and had success in the Sydney AFL women's premier division with East Coast Eagles. Both those victories came on the same weekend.

The former Canobolas Rural Technology High School student admitted a third premiership was always part of the plan.

"It's pretty good, it was always in the back of my mind to get a third win for the year so it was good to get it," she said.

Although Naden admitted it went close to not happening at all.

"It took a lot of convincing to get me to play in this competition but they managed to get me there so it was pretty to get the win in the end, it was worth it," she said.

One of the people who worked on convincing Naden to play this season was Platypi opens coach Kevin Grimshaw, who previously worked with the star fullback in 2020.

He was glad to have her and was impressed by her efforts in the grand final.

"She played with me the first time I started coaching, she had a season off and then came back," he said.

"She had a pretty good grand final, she scored a try and was involved in another try too.

"She had three hit ups in the one set and we scored from her making good yards from those hit ups.

"So she had a big hand in that try even though she didn't score."

As good as Naden was for the Platypi this season - who scored five tries and saved countless others - Grimshaw thinks she can become even better.

He'd love to see the talented custodian get more involved and showcase the natural attacking skills she's developed playing league tag for St Pat's.

"She pokes along and all of a sudden she goes bang, bang. You don't know she's on there half the time then when she gets the ball she says 'Thank very much'," he said.

"She's got to learn the more involvement she has in a game the better she'll get, but she'll pick that up."

The superstar sportsperson also won female of the year at Orange's NAIDOC Community Awards.

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