The Hoppers withstood a third quarter fightback from Lavington to claim the B grade spoils 40-33.

It was North Albury captain Alicia Van Emmerik’s fifth B grade title in six years.

“A couple of us have been through nearly all of them,” Van Emmerik said.

“We’re lucky we’ve had young kids come through that might spend a year in B grade and then they’re up in A grade, but they keep coming through.”

Van Emmerik’s nerves were put to the test when her side’s eight-goal half-time advantage was cut back to four, but the Hoppers rallied in the final term.

“It’s always a bit scary when that happens, but we had to take a lot of confidence from the games we played against them,” she said.

“We hadn’t lost to them all year and we had a solid win against them to get into the grand final only recently, but, in saying that, they played tough games to get there.”

Hoppers’ shooter Chloe Senior was named best on court after scoring 31 of North Albury’s 40 goals.

But it was North Albury’s ability to overcome huge challenges with injury that impressed the skipper the most.

“We had B grade girls filling A grade spots, we nearly had all defenders in A and B grade with injuries at one point,” Van Emmerik said.

“Molly (Goldsworthy) and Sara-Jane (Farrell) came back through injury and had shared time in A grade because of injuries.

“Elyse Boyer was in our B grade squad at the start of the year and injury forced her up to A grade, Tamika (Wholohan) has been a league best and fairest and didn’t play today and were down a shooter for the last six weeks with Grace Kelly out.”

Lavington reversed the result in the C grade decider earlier in the day with a comprehensive 43-21 victory against North Albury.

Coach Kelly Simpson feared the worst at the start, but her side quickly turned it around.

“They broke our centre first and I thought it could have gone badly, but we killed it after that and got the next seven or eight goals,” Simpson said.

Youngster Emma Guy was rewarded for a stellar finals series, leading all scorers with 18 goals in a best on court display.

“Emma missed 12 rounds this year, she played the first two and got injured, but came back for the last four to get qualified for finals,” Simpson said.

“She’s only 17 and she’s been our best without much game time, so it’s a real credit to her.”

Yarrawonga’s 16 and under side proved too strong for Wangaratta in the day’s other grand final, finishing 52-36 victors with Tilly Kennedy best on court.