North Melbourne Werribee capped off a brilliant debut season of partnership in the perfect fashion on Saturday, claiming the ultimate prize.

North Melbourne Werribee did it the hard way, coming from behind to defeat arch-nemesis Collingwood by six points and secure back to back VFLW premierships.

The Kangaroos trailed by two points at three-quarter time in a thrilling Grand Final.

Seven minutes from time, superstar forward Nyakoat Dojiok kicked a behind to level the scores.

Two minutes later, Stella Reid became the Roos' hero; her late on-the-run snap sending them six points in front against the side which had beaten them in both previous meetings this season.

In a desperate finish, they hung on to win by that margin, 5.4 (34) to 4.4 (28).

Alana Barba starred as she won her third VFLW premiership and was awarded her second Lisa Hardeman medal, leading the charge among a brilliant midfield brigade to finish with 35 disposals, 11 clearances and 11 tackles.

With scores level and only five minutes remaining, the Kangaroos were desperate for a hero, and it was Stella Reid who stepped up.

Playing most of the season in defence, Reid looked a natural forward throughout the whole game as she kicked three goals, with her final effort the most memorable of the lot.

Pouncing on a loose bouncing ball inside 50, she blazed away from her defender, running around on the left and snapping truly from 30m to light up ETU Stadium and give her side the lead for the first time since midway through the second quarter.

The Kangaroos’ tackle pressure was hot from the off, resulting in the Roos kicking the opening two goals for the game.

It was Dojiok who struck first with a brilliant run-down tackle to win the free kick and slot the opener from 40 metres, before defender-turned-forward Stella Reid followed suit, pouncing on a Pies defender to set up the Roos’ second by the nine minute mark of the opening term.

North Melbourne Werribee’s triumph simply could not have been achieved without the influence of the small defenders.

Jemmika Douglas (nine disposals, six intercepts) Zoe Savarirayan (nine disposals, five intercepts) and Amanda Ling (nine disposals, five intercepts) all put in an immense effort to keep the Magpies scoreless in the final term, intercepting in the air and at ground level, with Douglas’ big moment coming late as she hung on to a courageous pack mark with only minutes remaining.

VFLW Coach Brett Gourley on the win: “It was an incredible finish to an incredible game. I thought there were so many times where we thought Collingwood were on top or we might have gotten on top of them early, but we were able to bounce back and show a lot of resilience in that last quarter.”

“We’ve done a lot of work on our resilience and we’ve put a lot of effort and time into that space because there are really good teams. We knew they were going to come at us at some point, but to be able to do that in the last quarter of a Grand Final was incredible.”

On Barba: “Barba was incredible. Getting the ball down our end and gaining territory was a big focus for us. She really just activated ‘beast mode’ again today and I thought there was no way she was going to lose today. You could see it in her eyes.

She was incredible for us, along with all of the other mids in there as well.”

On Reid: “The Stella move was one we spoke about a few weeks ago. We were able to get some really good time in forward half to give her some scoring opportunities.

“We knew we had to score a bit more and we thought Stella could really help that and she gave us the extra one that we needed. It was a good move in the end.”

COLLINGWOOD 1.1 3.2 4.4 4.4 (28)
NORTH MELBOURNE WERRIBEE 3.0 3.2 4.2 5.4 (34)

GOAL SCORERS:
Collingwood: Christensen 2, Clarke 1, Peck 1
North Melbourne Werribee: Reid 3, Dojiok 2

BEST PLAYERS:
North Melbourne Werribee: Barba, Reid, Douglas, Di Cosmo, Dojiok, Sutton