GDFNL | Werribee girls make history, Smith takes out best and fairest

01 Sep Werribee girls make history, Smith takes out best and fairest

Posted at 02:25h in football by GDFL Media 0 Comments

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Large convoys of Werribee Centrals netball fans are expected to journey down to the GDFL finals in Newcomb this afternoon to celebrate the achievements of two club legends.

Emma (née Maycock) Gilham will become the club’s first 300 game player when the Centurions play off against Inverleigh in the league’s B-Grade second semi final.

Moments later her club’s netball coordinator, and prolific A-Grade goal-scorer, Ellie Tubbs will then become the sixth Werribee woman to join Gilham’s 200 game club.

“There’s been a lot of great figures at the club but not many people have been able to reach these milestones so efficiently,” Tubbs said of her teammate.

Gilham, who crossed over to the club to join her partner Chris in 2002, has played over 200 A-Grade games including the club’s three-peat of premierships from 2005-07.

The mid-courter will now join North Geelong’s Kelly Parker and Winchelsea’s Lesley Mathison as the league’s third 300 game player.

“Emma gets up black and blue at the end of every game so to see her absorb all of her knocks, given she’s a different size, each week has been inspirational,” Tubbs reflected.

“During her 300 games she’d always manage to get up the next week with a torn calf or some games she’d take the minimum amount of rest time required after a knock.”

“She just knows her stuff, she’s a great teammate and always wants success on the court and she’s a great leader at the same time.”

“From a co-coordinator’s perspective she put in 110% effort each game and training session as a junior and B-Grade coach as well so we’re very happy to celebrate her as a person this weekend.”

Tubbs’ A-Grade side will now hope to hold off Thomson in this weekend’s blockbuster final to book a spot in sixth straight grand final.

If they cannot get the job done, the A-Grade powerhouse will then have to play the winner of Sunday’s Bannockburn vs. Corio clash in the preliminary final.

“Thomson looks good in the A-Grade so hopefully we’ll both be able to get the job done on the weekend and book a spot in both grand finals,” Tubbs added.

While Tubbs has displayed dedication for her club as their netball co-ordinator since 2010 she also holds an impressive on court resume.

After taking out titles in the C-Grade and B-Grade titles the prolific shooter has gone onto star in Werribee’s run of top tier grand final victories.

Individually, four team of the year plarks and four interleague titles sit proudly under her endless amount of leading goal-scorer awards.

“I grew up playing basketball and then in 2009 I started playing C-Grade with my friend Kirsty so I started playing as a goal-shooter because I didn’t have that much knowledge or talent,” Tubbs recalled.

“We won a few premierships there and then we had a premiership in B-Grade before I was called up to A-Grade in 2013 under the new coach Lina Liuta.”

“The rest was history.”

Werribee’s 200-game club already includes Gilham and her sister Amanda Nielson, Tanya Redpath, current A-Grade coach Nicole Weatherley and captain Amanda O’Malley.

MEANWHILE first year Centurion Jackson Smith has taken out his first senior best and fairest with 185 votes ahead of Blake Taylor who finished on 105.

It marked Smith’s first senior club best and fairest after finishing runner up at the Mount Waverley Lions in both 2016 & 2017.