Hull FC Women’s Head Coach Jack Coates was delighted with the way his side executed the game plan in their 26-18 Grand Final triumph over Fryston Warriors yesterday.
Despite falling behind early on, Hull stuck to their guns and bounced back to the Championship at the first time of asking, courtesy of a five-star performance from Evie Sexton, FC’s Women’s Player of the Year.
Whilst Sexton shone, the full team battled their way to victory with some heroic defending at times. And Coates believes that his side got their just rewards at the end of a strong campaign.
“It feels amazing. It’s been an incredibly hard season, but I think the girls got exactly what they deserved,” he said.
“It wasn’t pretty but it didn’t need to be. We knew that coming to Featherstone at this time of the year would be a challenge, especially with the amount of rain there’s been over the last week.
“But the game plan for us was to keep it simple – try and play down the middle and your rewards will come off the back of that and I thought we executed that really well.
“But also, our attitude to dig in and work hard for each other was really important and key moments in the game. And we also showed some smarts throughout the game, which was really pleasing as well.”
Thirteen of Hull’s 20 players in the Grand Final yesterday are aged 21 or younger, with many of that group progressing through the Girls Rugby League programme that is currently in place at the club.
For many, Sunday’s Grand Final was the biggest occasion of their careers.
But there was no lack of maturity for the young Hull outfit, according to Coates.
“Days like today are huge. We spoke about that at half-time and said about how days like today will test each individual’s character when it’s tight and not much in it. I thought we showed a real nice maturity, despite there being so many young players in the squad,” he said.
“Ultimately, the win puts us back on a forward trajectory and that was always the plan from when we started the season.
“The girls have bought into the whole plan really well from day one and I believe that winning League One will be able to propel us towards where we want to be.”
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