Dennington netballer Lani Barling is chasing her first A grade premiership.
IN the 10 years Lani Barling has been playing netball for Dennington, the club has never won an A grade premiership.
In fact, the club has never won an A grade premiership in the 21 years that netball has been part of the Warrnambool and District league.
That’s a deficit Barling and her teammates are hoping to rectify on Saturday afternoon.
“I’ve played in two grand finals, but we never got the flag,” she said.
“That’s what we want and we are determined to get it.”
She said she expected Merrivale to be keen to avenge last year’s shock grand final loss to South Rovers.
“They will be determined, that’s for sure.” she said.
“Their loss last year was unexpected, so they will be keen to make up for that.
“But we are determined as well. We want to make history for the club.”
The Dennington local said the Dogs had to rebuild their side throughout the year after losing a number of key players.
“We had a brilliant team at the start of the year, but then we lost a few girls for a whole range of reasons,” she said. “We had to rebuild the team in the middle of the season and for a while the biggest worry was if we could get a team on the court.
“We got back on track and started winning again.”
Barling, who usually plays in the Dogs’ goals, said she thought Saturday’s clash would be close and hard-fought.
“They have a couple of key players we need to watch, players like Elisha Carter and Danielle McInerney,” Barling said of the Tigers.
She said Dennington’s win over Merrivale in the final round of the season would have little impact on the game.
“When we played them, they had a few of their top players out, so it will be a different style of game compared to that one,” she said.
“We are just going in with a positive attitude and we are hopeful we can get across the line.”
jwoolley@standard.fairfax.com.au