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IT has been a big year for Norths captain Nan Latta to say the least.
She’s taken out a Masters World Cup medal, an Australian Masters medal and now a grand final medal when her side defeated Falcons 2-1 yesterday.
“It’s been a lucky year,” Latta said.
“You can’t really ask for any more than that.”
Latta scored both goals in the upset win against the minor premiers.
She said the difference was that Norths were able to play the game on their own terms.
“We had a plan to go back to playing our own game and not theirs,” Latta said.
“That really worked well — and I think we really ran the game out and showed a lot of heart and guts.
“There were no weaknesses — sometimes you come to play and sometimes you don’t and today we did.
“They’ve beaten us all season but one game.
“I think today it was a question of who wanted it more wins, and we wanted it.
“They like to throw the ball a lot through the middle of the pitch so we’d talked about flooding the middle when running back and keeping the ball wide.”
The result was a reversal of last year’s grand final when the two sides faced each other.
Another major difference was goalkeeper Sam Campbell, who was named best player of the final for her heroics as the last line of defence.
“She played so well she really kept us in it,” Latta said.
“There were a lot of scrambly line balls but our defence held together.”
North’s young troops were also instrumental in the win, with six in the side playing in the winning under-16 grand final side on Friday night.
“The club’s got a really good future,” Latta said.
It was a big day too for premiership player Leah Willsmith who earlier in the day played in the Boomers’ losing soccer grand final.