ALTHOUGH clearly dejected after losing Saturday night’s Suncorp Super Netball Grand Final, the overwhelming sentiment of NSW Swifts’ trio Maddy Proud, Paige Hadley and coach Briony Akle was one of pride.

Akle even said to her team post-match that “I’m proud of them.”

“At the end of the day these are hard to win right? And that we needed to stay connected,” Akle said. “I’m very proud of them, and I said to them walking in here that they’ve got to remember that we were seven down, and to bring it back to even have that contest, have that extra time. Losing, it hurts but that’s why wining makes it that extra special bit, but I’m proud of them.”

When asked what she put her team’s slow start down to, Proud said “I think there was a magnitude of things.”

“I don’t think it was lack of effort, it was almost like they had that little extra energy than us,” she said. There was that case of the harder you tried, the worse it ended up for us and then I think we almost went too big picture too early and then that third quarter it was just let’s go goal-by-goal ad get it back and get it back and then it was sort of take care of it by itself.”

“I just thought early on we probably weren’t disciplined enough, we had poor execution, and probably let the ball get down too easily into their attack end and when they were scoring so easily and it was difficult for us, one that turns into two that turns into eventually seven.”

“I thought the way that we came out in that second half, we just went back to the Swifts way and we let the ball go, I think we were too hesitant in that first half and then in that second half we really started to move the ball and that was what opened up our attack end and had we had that from the start it could have been a very different ball game, but as Briony said to come back and do that hard work it was pretty special but obviously it was disappointing to do all that hard work and then to not be able to finish off is heartbreaking.”

The closeness of Saturday night’s clash was the just the continuation of a series of close matches in a row for the Swifts, and Hadley believed that having so many close games in a row helped them prepare for extra time on the weekend.

“I think so, and I think obviously the way we got back into that game in the last few minutes then leading into extra time, I thought we had momentum and I think our connection was so strong that in those moments we back each other and we go from there and unfortunately it was ebbing and flowing through there and it just didn’t be our way time wise on the clock. We knew it was going to come down to a tight battle like that, and it’s a great way to win and a tough way to lose.”

A number of players received praise from the trio on Saturday night, and one of those was Sophie Fawns.

Akle spoke of the young star so fondly, noting that “when I was just giving her a hug at the end and I’m like ‘don’t sit in this. You’re 19′.

“We’ve all spoken about how hard it is in any professional league to make a Grand Final and her impact to be able to come on and keep a cool head, not only her attacking but her defending is brilliant,” Akle said. “She gets out there and she has a crack, so her future is massive and we’re all proud of her. She’s had a rough two years, and her story is amazing that she’s come out of this with all these sisters that have certainly looked after her and cared for her and got around her.”

Proud then chipped in after her coach, adding “she was the one in the huddle at half-time saying to us, it was one of the most special moments I think I’ve had in sport.”

“She came up and she said ‘if this is the last half of netball you ever play what would you do?’ and for her to step up in that moment and I think Soph in Round 1 compared to Soph in Round 16 or whatever it is now, just shows her growth and I think her words are honestly what sparked that second half as well.”