Kira-Lea Dargin reflects on her Woodbridge under 14s side's premiership season

A strong Wiradjuri Goannas side were pressing, as the sun blazed down on Kennard Park, Wellington.

Mental resilience has been a strong topic for the Woodbridge side and they needed all of that and more.

Fortunately, for themselves and their coach Kira-Lea Dargin, the girls held on for a famous grand final victory.

"It was an overwhelming mixture of emotions for them (at full-time)," Dargin said.

"They were excited but absolutely exhausted, and on edge as well. There were smiles, and tears, and everything all in one."

Before the game started, Dargin had asked for her side to come out firing and that's exactly what they did, setting up a lead at half-time.

But then the heat kicked in and the Woody girls relied on their tackling ability to get them through to the final whistle.

"The heat played a huge part in the loss of momentum, it was pretty warm and the girls aren't used to those conditions," Dargin explained.

"Fatigue and heat kicked in and there was back to back defensive sets ... in the second half the Goannas definitely played the better game than us but thankfully, as I tell the girls every week, defence wins games and we were able to hold them out."

While defence definitely won Woodbridge the game, there was an ace up its sleeve.

Prop Grace MacGregor was the star of the show, scoring a hat-trick to help her side to victory.

"She's a little champion," Dargin said.

"She's got so much talent and is such a sweet humble girl and took out leading try-scorer for the competition and our club's best and fairest for the 14s."

The MacGregor name has become famous in Woodbridge circles with Grace's sister Elizabeth leading the 16s side to the grand final.

"There's some talent in that family between G-Mac and E-Mac," Dargin said.

"She's our MacGregor magic, and we said to her 'your sister has set the bar but you're raising it'."

For Dargin, the full-time whistle simply brought relief.

Tears didn't come, but a desire to get out of the heat did.

On Sunday Woodbridge held its presentation night, and that's when the emotions arrived.

"The tears came the next day," she said.

"We had our club presentation with a theme of dress up as your favourite NRL player, we had a good laugh, and a few players came as Latrell Mitchell and Renee Targett, tattoos and all.

"We had a good gathering and I think that's when the emotions set in - the girls had a fairy-tale season and it might only happen once in your life time. Hopefully they have a good off season and come back next year."

For Dargin personally, the 14s role has been a huge commitment.

Every week she's travelled from Sydney to mentor the side.

Her effort with the team has been a considerable investment, but it was all worth it once the grand final ended.

"I've absolutely loved it, I'm all for the girls and developing their skills and giving them the opportunities," she said.

"I had some really positive coaches in my life as a teenager and I know the importance of having a good coach.

But success hasn't been limited to on the field.

The girls have grown off it too, with Dargin calling in the big guns earlier in the season when NRLW player Renee Targett held a coaching clinic for the side.

For her, that's been one of the most rewarding aspects.

"It's great to be that person who's able to offer those skills to the kids and take home life lessons that it's more than just football as well which was really good for me," she said.

"Even if it's one or two things they pick up from me then that's my job done, whether it's win, loss or draw it doesn't matter what it came down to, I just asked the girls to give their best, give 100 per cent to themselves and they won't ever let anyone else down.

"For me to be able to travel out and give them as much as I can was good, I enjoyed it and thought it was one of the best experiences - to have my own daughter (Alaiela) in the team wasn't bad either."

With those mental lessons learnt, Dargin said it reflected in how they improved as players across the season.

"I saw them grow mentally as athletes in their preparation when they head into the game and being able to switch on and focus," she said.

"Their confidence was one of the biggest things for me, having young girls that were probably too scared to get the ball and have a run now being the ones that want to push into the middle and have a hit. Seeing their confidence level go up 200 per cent was probably the biggest reward for me.

"Towards the end they had two tough games back to back, they were down to 11 on the field last week in the semi and it was all about reminding the girls about that mental strength they needed to take on board.

"Playing in the heat on a dry patch in Wellington definitely got them again but keeping them focused and calm and getting them to play football was one of the biggest challenges.

"I did say to the girls there was times when heat and mindset got the better of them, there was times throughout the game that Goannas played better but that's one thing we can take from that grand final and work towards next year and improve their skill set around that.

"It highlighted an area of improvement so that's something, and even though we won we can take that on board and improve ourselves as a team next year."

As it goes with a Woodbridge women's side, the player pool comes from a number of towns.

The 14s side was made up mainly of people from Canowindra, Cowra, Parkes, Forbes, Condobolin and Eugowra.

All those areas had been affected by record floods during the Western Women's Rugby League season.

Dargin said while her team was affected, there was a priority to ensure the players were able to enjoy themselves despite the tragedies going on.

"We had one game after we played at Peak Hill where some didn't know if they'd be able to get home," she said.

"We had girls that some weeks were flooded in or trying to find alternative means to get to games.

"My hat goes off to the parents, through hell or high water, they got them to training or to games and then we just dealt with whatever situation was at hand after that.

"(It was all about) let's just get the kids there and make sure they have a good time, enjoy themselves and make sure they get their mind off what's going on around them. 14-year-olds don't need to have that stress."

It's clear from the coach's comments there's already an eye on next season.

But considering the travel and having a baby on the way, it's still worth asking the question of will she return?

"I'll be back," she said defiantly.

"It's home out there, that's mob and that's country for me.

"I'll be back and probably look like Alan from The Hangover with some glasses and a baby carrier."

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