Eaglehawk in 2012, Gisborne (2013), Kangaroo Flat in (2014 and '16) and Sandhurst (2017) were among a group of teams to finish the minor season with minimum losses and emerge unscathed through the final series.

But none was able to achieve what Golden Square did in 2015 by completing the perfect season.

The Bulldogs, coached by Lia Marrone, cruised through the regular season with an average winning margin of 26.8 goals.

Only their eventual grand final opponent Strathfieldsaye, in round 10, and Sandhurst, in round 17, were able to escape defeat by less than double figures.

Castlemaine and South Bendigo, which finished the season in 10th and ninth respectively bore the brunt of the Bulldogs' might, with average losses of 53 goals for the Magpies and 49.5 goals for the Bloods.

A star-studded Square, led by their dynamic defensive duo of Allira Holmes and joint 2014 Betty Thompson medallist Meg Gilbert, rising stars Ashley and Abbey Ryan, experienced hands Belinda Pinner and 2011 premiership coach Kath Basilewsky, and BFNL newcomer Gabe Richards, needed just one game to book their spot in the grand final, accounting for Strathfieldsaye 45-35 in the second semi-final.

Little did the Bulldogs know their closest call of the season would come two weekends later.

Chasing their first A-grade grand final appearance, the Storm - coached by Papua New Guinea international and former Queensland Firebird Mali Roberts and captained by Aleisha Langdon - advanced to the big dance with a 46-26 win over Gisborne, which had survived a pair of one-point thrillers against reigning premiers Kangaroo Flat and Sandhurst earlier in the finals.

A preliminary final victory delivered the Storm an eighth victory from their past nine games.

With winning margins of 18, nine and 10 goals over the Storm during the season, few supporters expected anything other than a Golden Square victory in the big one.

Those predictions looked safe after the Bulldogs dominated the first half to build up a big lead and were able to maintain it going into the final term.

With the scores next door reading Strathfieldsaye 21 to Sandhurst a solitary point at half time in the senior football grand final, the Golden Square goaling combination of Richards and Abbey Ryan was outpacing the men.

The Bulldogs continued to lead by 12 goals midway through the final quarter, before a remarkable transformation came over the contest.

With time fast running out, the Storm, led by their young goal shooter Claudia Powell, rattled off eight unanswered goals to pull within four goals with a little less than two minutes to play.

A steadying goal for the Bulldogs by Richards was able to stretch the margin to five goals, with the score 43-38.

Strathfieldsaye's relentless fightback would take its toll, with the Storm only able to muster one goal from its next two forays forward, leaving Golden Square to seal a four-goal triumph, 43-39, and its first flag win since 2011.

A sterling performance in defence earned Bulldogs captain Holmes the best on court award.

Speaking to the Bendigo Advertiser after the game, Holmes described the honour as 'a bit of a shock', preferring to talk up the contributions of her team-mates.

While much of the grand final remains a blur, the connections with her fellow premiership players and recollections of a tight-knit and outstanding team still flicker bright for Holmes, most notably her partnership with fellow defender Gilbert, which would endure a further two grand final appearances.

"Playing with Meg .... well it's something I would love to do again one day," she said.

"We hadn't really had anything to do with one another before Golden Square, but it was a combination that just clicked. She's easily one of the best defending partners I've ever had.

"We just had this unique bond where we could read each other quite well, which was bizarre.

"It's a hard thing to find, so playing with Meg was definitely one of the highlights of that grand final. We always had each other's back."

Holmes, who finished fifth in that year's Betty Thompson Medal count, won by Sandhurst's Heather Oliver, recalled feeling 'pretty nervous' but 'confident' heading into the grand final as the unbeaten team.

Five years on, Holmes - like all netballers - finds herself waiting for word on whether the 2020 season will go ahead due to the coronavirus.

It will be her second as coach of rival club Eaglehawk, where she finds herself in charge of two of her 2015 premiership team-mates, the Ryan sisters.

It's something she would never have envisioned back in 2015, or even for a few years afterwards.

"I found it really weird when I first came to Bendigo, I tried out at Square and remember playing on a girl, who had tried out at three other clubs - I couldn't believe it,"

I was from a small country town (Cohuna) and heaven forbid you would ever go to a neighbouring club, or somewhere in the same league, it just wasn't heard of.

"It's a different culture in the BFNL, I certainly didn't see myself leaving Square and I still call Square a home club.

"I will have a soft spot for them always."

For dual code athlete Richards, a premiership served as the perfect introduction to BFNL netball.

The two-time WNBL championship player and eventual 250-gamer with Bendigo Spirit had played a pair of seasons in the Heathcote District league earlier in the decade, earning a pair of premierships with Mount Pleasant, but was new to Golden Square in 2015.

Richards' duel against Storm goal keeper Fiona Themann (now Fowler) was one of the most anticipated of the match.

Themann, who earlier that season represented the Scottish Thistles at the 2015 World Cup, would later go on to play in a Loddon Valley league premiership at Newbridge in 2016, before playing with Suncorp Super Netball club Adelaide Thunderbirds.

Richards recalled the grand final being 'intense' and 'physical', with Strathfieldsaye having a huge and vocal supporter base.

"Lia (Marrone) was a wonderful coach for me, having played netball for a long time she helped remind me of the rules occasionally when I didn't know them, " she said.

"We had quite an experienced team that year. There were a few young ones on the team - the Ryan girls in particular were quite young in my first year - but there was a lot of experience and a lot of cool-heads, which really helped at the end of the game.

"That experience also helped me transition back to netball.

"I have a huge amount of respect for the Square girls that I played with, it was a really fun group. Highly competitive, but just very welcoming for me coming across from basketball.

"They weren't just team-mates, they were good friends that I made.

"It was lovely to play with such a great group."

Richards would end up playing two more seasons with the Square, plus a cameo in a win against Gisborne in 2018, earning a spot in the BFNL Team of the Decade at goal shooter.

READ MORE:

Returning stars help Square to win over Gisborne | BFNL

A thrilling A-grade triumph capped an amazing season for the Bulldogs, who also won the A-reserve and B-grade flags and were narrowly beaten by one goal in the B-reserve premiership decider by Strathfieldsaye.

A-reserve also went undefeated.

While it was not the grand final result the Storm had hoped for, it was an exciting and extraordinary performance for a club contesting just its seventh BFNL season.

Second-year Storm player Bianca Garton (nee Jones) recalled the A-grade side's versatility as its strength, with Themann - 'coming in and out of the side' - Kate Burton and Cara Bastian being key new inclusions for the season.

"I remember we were a very tight bunch and had a lot of banter off the court and that made us successful," she said.

"Some of us hadn't played finals in the BFNL before and we were definitely the underdogs going into the finals, knowing Golden Square was the powerhouse.

"Sandhurst was a power too. We hadn't beaten them during the season, but ended up winning against them in a final, and that gave us plenty of confidence and belief."

Garton felt it was the Storm's inability to settle early in the contest which had cost them on grand final, while not wanting to take away anything from a 'brilliant' Golden Square.

"I know we made some changes at half time, but I feel Golden Square took their foot off the pedal a bit," she said.

"We got those eight or nine goals in a row, but the clock beat us in the end.

"To only lose by four was disappointing, but had we backed ourselves a little bit more from the start, maybe things would have been different.

"It was a good achievement really for such a new club."

Now coaching Loddon Valley league club Marong, Garton said she had taken plenty of what she had learned from her former Storm coach with her to Malone Park.

"I guess the thing to note about Mali's coaching style is she really made us be accountable for the way we trained and played," she said.

"She was big on feedback and would certainly tell us when we played well but also wasn't afraid to let us know when we didn't, and in my experience, that's something a lot of coaches don't do or do well.

"She focused a lot on our individual weaknesses and taught us ways to improve on them so that we could be a better team player, and I think it definitely played a part in getting us to that grand final."

Golden Square: Allira Holmes, Meg Gilbert, Kath Basilewsky, Belinda Pinner, Ashley Ryan, Abbey Ryan, Gabe Richards, Steph Freemantle, Lia Marrone (playing coach), Amy Davies, Lucy Morcom, Chantal O'Brien.

Strathfieldsaye: Fiona Themann, Kate Burton, Bianca Jones, Brianna Dalrymple-Monro, Aleisha Langdon, Caitlyn Hamilton, Claudia Powell, Paige Richardson, Cara Bastian, Elyse Morgan.

READ MORE:

Dragons' Oliver slays rivals in runaway Betty Thompson Medal win

2014: Kangaroo Flat bounds back to the top in BFNL netball

2013: Gisborne survives fightback to win first BFNL A-grade flag

2012: Eaglehawk breaks flag drought in a thriller

Golden Square storms home to win 2011 flag

Roos start the decade the same way they ended the 2000s

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