Doyle Rules: St Kevin’s produce a historic three-peat

YET again St Kevin’s have finished the William Buck Premier Women’s season as the premiers.

2019, 2022 and now 2023 trophies will sit proudly at the TH King Oval.

Tom Purcell has guided his team through another successful campaign. This September almost a mirror image of September 12 months ago.

Losing to Kew in the semi-final, St Kevin’s had to go the long way to reach the Grand Final, overcoming Old Scotch last weekend.

Trailing by 8 points without a goal at half-time, words of wisdom from Purcell spurred his team into action.

Jess Joyce starting to get her hands on the ball in the middle of the ground and surge SKOB forward at every opportunity. Molly Simpson became dangerous around goal kicking one of her own, before Cate Stanton turned the game on its head with two majors including a bomb from beyond 50m.

In the space of 10 minutes, St Kevin’s went from being down, to being ahead by four goals with one quarter to play.

Calls from the three quarter time huddle of getting the job done for their co-captain Margie Gleeson, playing her final game was enough for St Kevin’s to play their brand in the final term. Lock the ball up and not allow the Bears the easy access to goal that they required.

Bree Doyle, in game #100, the co-captain with Gleeson put an exclamation point on the contest by kicking the final goal of the game and sealing a famous victory for St Kevin’s. Doyle has had a stellar 2023, taking over the captaincy at the start of the season, awarded the honour of being the Big V captain, and now in her milestone game being awarded the best player on the ground.

This is a special group of SKOB Saints that have fought against wholesale changes, from 2022 to 2023 there are now 11 new premiership players to join the ever growing list of champions at the TH King Oval.

Tom Purcell declared a statue is being built for Doyle at the club-rooms in the pre-game. They have officially started to commission that after her performance today.

Photos: St Kevin’s Old Boys