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Sport

17 September, 2024

THE COACHES' SAY: Avoca's Maddy Egan

That’s three in four years for the league’s most devastating mother-daughter duo, and it cements Maddy and Kerry Egan’s legacy, not just at Avoca, but across the league, as one of the most dominant teams we have seen.

By Michael Thompson

THE COACHES' SAY: Avoca's Maddy Egan - feature photo

Eighty wins in 83 games across five years has now yielded a stunning run for the Bulldogs — their three premierships in four attempts only bettered at the moment by their run from 1967 to 1971 which saw them win four flags in five years, and their five-premiership run from 1986 to 1990.

Certainly, in the Maryborough Castlemaine District Football Netball League, this is their greatest ever run.

Perhaps most stunning was the admission from Maddy that their 26-goal victory over Natte Bealiba wasn’t seen to be their best performance in the immediate wash-up.

“I don’t think it was our best game, but we’ll blame the wind. We eventually got four full quarters in,” she said.

Having said that, Maddy also believed they did what they needed to do.

“I think we really focused on coming out of the blocks this week, we couldn’t let Natte get their heads and their noses up, and we had to keep going from there,” she said.

“We came in thinking it would be a tight game, and up until the third quarter, we took every single opportunity we had and turned it into a goal. I think we lapsed a bit in the third quarter, but we also had to make use of our turnovers, because we knew that Natte were capable of coming back.”

Maddy believes it’s a simple meshing of everyone that has come together, with a hodgepodge of the experienced, long-serving Lucy Howell and Stacey Blair, plus the influence of Maddy herself, who has brought along Elisa Pica and Keisha Tonzing from the Maryborough Blazers in basketball to translate their skillset into netball during the winter.

“We all get on so well, we mesh so well. The girls played together for a long time before I went out there, and now we’ve played together for a long time. Teisha, Elisa and I all play basketball together, so we meshed really well into one big unit,” she said.

As for the secret behind the incredible winning run?

“We just go out every week and hope to play a good game, and hope to win,” Maddy says.

Maddy, as ruthless as she is, still has plenty of goals alongside Kerry, who uses netball as a vehicle to stay motivated.

“I think it’s almost the only time we really see each other at netball and training. The girls keep us going. It is not hard to stay motivated with this group, they are absolutely amazing, doing it for one another and doing it for the team,” she said.

“I wish the B and C grade was in with us, but we’ll have to do it for them next year.”

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