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THERE was no time for premiership celebrations for Charlton A-grade goal defence Kate Burton.
The star Navies skipper barely had time to collect her bags before being whisked away to Melbourne in the aftermatch of her side's dramatic 54-53 overtime win in Saturday's NCNA grand final at St Arnaud.
Burton will spend the next three months volunteering aboard a Mercy Ships vessel in African waters.
The international charity operates the largest non-government hospital ships in the world, providing free health care and education, mental health programs and palliative care to patients in some of the world's poorest nations.
Burton said while the premiership celebration might be on hold for her for a few months, she was looking forward to her overseas adventure.
"It's a big thing and I'm very nervous," Burton said.
"(But) I'm taking my medal with me."
Burton, a multiple league medallist, was adjudged best-on-court in her side's one goal win over Wedderburn.
The premiership win was a long time coming for the defender, who has stamped herself as a class individual both on and off the court.
Wedderburn entered the game on the verge of a seventh straight premiership, with Burton and some of her teammates on the receiving end of a few of those defeats.
She said the emotion that accompanied that such a nail-biting was hard to explain.
"Wedderburn was going for their seventh straight premiership - gee it feels good to win by a goal and in overtime," she said.
"It's amazing. I thought (we were going to double overtime), but we were lucky enough to get that one goal.
"I'm stoked and my girls (teammates), I'm so proud of them.
"We were five (goals) up in that last quarter, but you can never say never with Wedderburn."
It was Burton's first year back at her home club after a short stint at BFNL side Strathfieldsaye.
She was a part of the Storm's 2015 grand final team that was narrowly beaten by Golden Square.
Her Navies coach Kim Fitzpatrick could not speak highly enough of Burton's grand final performance.
"She covers so much ground, defends and moves those feet around and rebounds strongly," she said.
"And she talks a lot to the other girls and they get a lot of turnovers too (because of her)."