by Mike Collins, Director of Sport
The first points of the day were scored an hour after sunrise, about 90km away from the arenas where incredible athletes clad in the Bull Sharks’ blue and gold would rise above the best football sides in Queensland.
By sunset three premiership cups were on their way back to the Gold Coast, silverware that would place beyond challenge Bond University’s status as a leader in women’s sport.
From Zoe Hanna’s Campbell Medal winning best on ground performance and captain Elisha Godsiff’s incredible prowess in the line-out to the attacking punch of the powerful Mel Wilks, Bull Sharks women were shining on Queensland Premier Rugby’s biggest stage.
The QAFLW sides had their heroes too. One day soon we will be celebrating the successes at AFLW level of future stars Havana Harris, Ava Usher, Nyalli Milne and Kiara Bischa. But for now, we can marvel at the collective contributions that saw the Bond footy club become the first of the QAFLW era to claim premierships in both grades in the same year.
At about 4.15pm triumphant coach Andy Lovell strode onto a stage in the middle of Brighton Homes Arena to collect the QAFLW Seniors premiership cup and told the crowd that “teams win matches, but clubs win premierships.”
He was talking to the players who had missed selection through injury and the army of volunteers who don’t get a medal to hang around their neck, but without whose contribution the Bull Sharks might not have even reached the Grand Final.
But he could have been talking to the entire Bull Sharks sporting fraternity.
A collegial attitude is building with Bond Sport and our student athletes are the big winners.
Our rugby, swimming and AFL coaches and strength and conditioning staff trade expertise and ideas. Players and officials from rival codes openly support each other at games and on social media. Pre-finals pump-up videos have become the norm in recent weeks and a host of athletes from the Bond Elite Sports Program have taken part.
And within the clubs it is thriving.
Which brings us back to the first points of the day. They were scored in the carpark at The Canal by a bunch of footballers jumping into busses to go and support another bunch of footballers.
The QFA boys, who the previous afternoon had booked their own Grand Final berths, headed west to Springfield Lakes while the QPR players headed off to Ballymore Stadium.
The Bond rugby boys nailed it with the decision to adopt a pink “Barbie” themed dress code for their end of season celebrations – which they kicked off by watching the Premier Women.
You couldn’t miss the noise, or the brilliant colour, that livened up the famous Ballymore hill.
And while they couldn’t compete in the fancy dress stakes, the rest of the Bull Sharks fans along the wing in the new grandstand went decibel-for-decibel with the boys on the hill.
Our girls knew they were supported, and so did the opposition.
Call it an omen or perhaps intuition, but the male players’ nod to the pop culture icon would prove to be prophetic.
Because Sunday belonged to the Bull Sharks’ inspirational female athletes. And it was a joy for the rest of us to be able to witness it.