Cavaliers win 19s-and-under Tasmanian netball premiership

The state's benchmark junior club secured their 13th state title against a side that won last year's premiership but had lost six of the previous eight.

Coach Lynda Colgrave said the club was proud to be performing well at both levels.

"This means everything to the club because we pride ourselves on our CDA (Cavaliers Development Academy)," she said.

"We're a stand-alone club so we've got to develop our juniors and have been so successful in both spaces for so long and we pride ourselves on that."

The teams produced a magnificent contest in which neither led by much more than a couple of goals until late on.

Locked together at the first two breaks, it was the third quarter when Cavs made their move. Leading 34-31 at the final change they kicked on in the last to win by five goals.

Matilda Franklin's 29th goal brought Cripps to within three with two minutes to go but one of several pivotal interceptions by goal keeper Paige O'Neill threatened to dislodge the Silverdome roof before Sophies Brewer and Blackberry took their goal tallies to 28 and 10 respectively to see Cavs home.

Colgrave confessed to "a slight bit of relief" having reproduced the form which delivered victory in all 14 roster games and then against Cripps in the qualifying final.

"I feel like we've had such a great season that we did deserve to win but sometimes the team that deserves to win doesn't on grand final day. Pure elation for these girls. They've worked so hard all year. We've got so many young players and people who have never played state league before. I think we've had one player who's played a grand final before so we knew the nerves were going to hit early.

"It was really hard work because they're a class act. We knew it wasn't going to be easy and they kept coming and coming and it wasn't until the last two minutes that I thought 'Maybe we've got this'."

"We talked about the fact that the 14 rounds were just to get to the finals and the semi-final was to get to the grand final so the fact that we hadn't lost a game played on our minds a little bit but we tried to put that aside."

Roared on by the Cavs senior team sitting courtside, the team's captain Ava Lockwood - daughter of former senior coach Dan Roden - was named MVP.

"It was intense," said the 17-year-old who hails from Scamander.

"We knew they would come out strong. They're a really good team and have good endurance so we had to keep our heads up and keep chipping away.

"It's a fantastic club. We're all so close between opens and CDA. Everyone's so supportive. It's the best."

Cripps goal keeper Jess Owen presented a formidable obstacle - demonstrating similarly giant genes to her 203-centimetre brother, Sydney Swans ruck forward Cameron - but the canny Cavs made up in guile where they were deficient in height.