Four weeks later they were Hampden league A grade premiers for the first time.

Non-playing coach Sharon Kenna, whose 28-year top-grade playing career ended without a premiership, told The Standard on Friday momentum carried the Eagles to the pinnacle.

"It was pretty much out of the blue," she said of the five-goal grand final win against powerhouse Koroit.

"We were sitting seventh before the last game and we knew we had to win the last game to even have a chance of making it into the top-five and we did.

"I think we won our last three games, we got a roll on."

Kenna said the Eagles played with a sense of freedom as they "had nothing to lose".

"Every game we went and played, the girls were out there to enjoy themselves and there was no pressure on because nobody expected us to win," she said, some seven years on from the famous finals run.

"It took until the last six rounds to have a full side; I'd been topping up the team all year.

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"Then I got a run on where I had a settled side."

Grand final day started early for Kenna. And so did the nerves.

"I'd gone early because my daughter was playing in the under 15s," she said.

"I just remember feeling really nervous right up until the (A grade) girls started to warm up and they were laughing and enjoying themselves."

Kenna said two starters - Sophie Barr and Annie Blackburn - were ill on game day but pushed through their discomfort.

Koroit went into the decider unbeaten but Kenna believes "there was something about that first quarter".

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"Rachael Ryan took three intercepts in that first quarter and we hung with them, they didn't jump us," she said.

"We were a draw at half-time and in the third quarter the girls went bang, bang, bang and we got to seven up and it was like 'oh my god'.

"At the three-quarter-time huddle we were talking and I was saying to the girls 'just remember to do this and don't forget to try this' and I remember Jaime Barr said 'ah girls, just go out there and win the bloody game'.

"And that is where we left it. I just went 'yeah, let's just do that'."

Kenna said the Eagles' rise was "a memory to always treasure".

Defender Jordyn Billings was best on court but there were players "who just did their job correctly and that made the difference" including sisters Laura and Annie Blackburn, Grace Chow and Sarah Bullen.

"Jordyn was just so steady in the first half and in the second half she just killed it," she said.

"She was our main driving force out of defence and she took some cracking intercepts."