Cavaliers co-coach Dannie Carstens reflects on State Netball League premiership success

Since the last time we played Hawks, we knew it was our game to win and it's just been a perfect build for our season.

The first time we played them we lost by 20 goals in St Helens and knew we had a lot of work to do.

We worked really hard to make sure we did everything right which included having that great relationship with (former Diamonds coach) Lisa Alexander to help scrutinise what we were doing on and off the court.

At the start of the year we set up a style of game we wanted to play based on the athletes we had and when we analysed that game in St Helens we had not hit the mark on any of those areas so had to decide whether we wanted to continue on with that gameplan.

We spent a lot of time looking at our structure and breaking it down with the individual players - each component of what we wanted to achieve in attack and defence - and they did it so well.

We knew Hawks were always going to be the team to beat based on what happened in 2020, so we started planning even before the St Helens game. That's why we want every year to get an external set of eyes to come in and scrutinise what we're doing.

Lisa reviewed our season and set some goals for the team, the coaches and athletes. We lost our last roster game by three goals and reflected on what worked and what didn't work and even after having that first final where we beat them by five goals we knew we had to keep pushing so did not have a weekend off.

We played the Tasmanian Titans men's team on the Sunday so had a really strong hitout and only then tapered our training. We went out for dinner as a group, viewed some footage and kept the intensity to the training just cut back the duration a bit.

I've seen the Hawks evolve over a number of years from when they were the Northern Saints and they've shifted the club culture considerably over a long period of time.

Prior to the last five or six years the Hawks were not making finals or having the success we would like to see from both teams in the North.

It's great to see players like Danni Pickett, who I've watched grow up, Gemma Poke, who was in our junior development program, Tessa and Lydia Coote, who I coached at Cavs and state teams, Gabby Groves and Lauren Spencer came through the Cavs pathway, so there's a lot of connections there and it's been great to see them grow and develop over a number of years and also to see two Northern teams playing off in the State League grand final for the last three years is an amazing effort.

This is number nine for open premierships for the club and just a representation of all the hard work that goes in across the board.

So it's nice to get the premiership when you know how hard everyone has worked and all the time that everyone puts into the season.

It's a true club effort and I'm so proud of everything that went into that moment on Saturday.

I was playing coach when we won in 2013, lost a couple when playing and coached the under-19s with Jamie Easther to a win in 2019.

You do have a sense of less control as a coach. I am conscious of how much more nervous I get as a coach than as a player but you still have control of the feedback you can give and with rolling subs you can also make an impact there, but it is definitely a very different feeling.

I love working with Dan.

He's an oyster farmer from St Helens so it's pretty amazing what he does to get to training every week and shows what a team effort it is for his wife and family.

He travels two hours each way three or four times a week, that's a pretty phenomenal effort for something that is basically part-time.

He's very analytical and I'm blown away with what he can take away from a game so we have a good dynamic. He can strategize and scrutinise and I like to think we're a really well balanced team.

That depends on the moment. Probably me on Saturday but him in the semi-final.

Men have a good way of taking emotion out of a situation. I think we're both pretty calm really.

A team effort.

The amount of things that go into a season - it's so much more than what happens on the court.

We have a hard working committee of volunteers giving up so much time for the girls. Carmel McGee, our manager, and Tonya Kroon, our president, they are all over everything.

The battle now is to keep getting better and we're always going to be chased now that we've got the premiership. We'll review and reflect all the stats this week to build into 2022.

In terms of the roles she has had to play, Estelle Margetts.

At the start of the year she was predominantly a circle defender but then when Zoe (Claridge) was out with her shoulder injury and Deanna Wadley was in and out through work, Estelle had to shift to goal attack where she had been when we won in 2013 so in terms of what she did at both ends of the court she would be among the highlights in terms of improvement.

That's really hard but Shelby Miller had an outstanding finals series and what she brings on and off court as a leader is very inspiring. She's certainly a very consistent performer who really stood up in the finals.

Rebecca Hyland came to us from Kingston and what she did in the defensive circle and brings off-court is stuff you cannot teach.

There's also the amazing season from Hayley McDougall. Scoring over 1000 goals and on numerous occasions scoring at 100 per cent and Hayley was also player of the grand final.

We were able to roll all 11 athletes onto the court in a grand final which shows the depth, belief and hard work of the team.