PORT Melbourne’s VFL Women’s premiership defence is alive for at least one more week after they defeated Box Hill by three goals in yesterday’s elimination final. It was a hard fought battle played in tricky conditions out at Box Hill City Oval, but it ultimately came down to who made more of their chances while the ball was inside their forward 50.

Port Melbourne dominated the beginning to the opening term thanks to some strong clearance work from Lauren Caruso who helped the Borough get the ball into their forward 50 quickly and lock it in there for much of the term. However accuracy proved a challenge for the Borough in the tricky conditions, with a number of behinds coming before the first major of the day.

After some relentless forward half pressure the Borough did eventually break through for a major when Jessie Williams kicked truly. For much of the quarter it looked like the Hawks were not even going to get it in their forward half, much less their forward 50 as some strong work from Caruso, Jordan Mifsud and others helped the Borough set up a strong defensive wall across the middle of the ground.

The Hawks did eventually make it inside their forward 50, and with not even 70 seconds left in the quarter Gabby Collingwood slotted through a goal for the home side to see the margin back to a mere four points in the Borough’s favour at the first change.

By contrast, the second quarter was a tale of two halves. The first half of it saw the Hawks dominate the territory game, albeit take their time to actually truly make the most of it on the scoreboard.

It took some physics bending magic from Tamara Luke from the boundary to see the Hawks finally get their second major for the match, and with it the lead was theirs.

Much like their hosts did in the first term, the Borough struggled to get the ball past halfway and into their attack early, but they eventually did at about the halfway mark of the term, and it did not take too long before Emily Harley slotted one through to give the Borough back the lead.

Harley’s goal signalled a shift in momentum in the Borough’s favour, with the visitors locking the ball in their half for much of the remainder of the quarter, and slotting a second goal for the term in the process via Williams.

It saw the Borough’s lead sit at 10 points at the main break, but with momentum switching so easily, the match was far from done.

The third term was truly a tale of who could make the most of their chances truly succeeding. For much of the front half of the quarter it was the Borough in control of the territory game, but all they could record on the scoreboard to show for it was one behind that could have been a goal.

Box Hill was then pretty quick to make them pay down as the Hawks worked the ball down the other end and Annie Muir kicked truly to bring the margin back to within four points. They eventually got within two before Rachael Slater converted up the other end to give the Borough a little bit of breathing space back.

In the end the margin was nine points as the teams turned for home.

The final quarter saw the play swing between the 50s, with very little scoring to show for it. A goal eventually did come in the eighth minute, and crucially for the Borough it came off the boot of Mifsud, and the margin was back up over two goals.

The Borough got a second for the term minutes later off the boot of Caruso, and it was almost time to put the icing on the cake for the visitors. That sealer eventually came with about three minutes to go, when Georgia Booth slotted one through from a tricky angle to stretch the margin to four goals.

Jessica Matin slotted through a consolation goal for the Borough a mere minute later, but it was too little too late as there were just not enough minutes left to fully claw back the deficit.

BOX HILL HAWKS 1.0 | 2.1 | 3.4 | 4.7 (31)
PORT MELBOURNE 1.4 | 3.5 | 4.7 | 7.7 (49)

GOALS:
Box Hill: G. Collingwood, T. Luke, J. Matin, A. Muir
Port Melbourne: J. Williams 2, G. Booth, L. Caruso, E. Harley, J. Mifsud, R. Slater

BEST:
Box Hill: T. Luke, R. Dillon, D. Spamer, G. Collingwood, E. McLinden
Port Melbourne: L. Caruso, J. Mifsud, G. Booth. J. Williams, E. Ashley-Cooper