During yesterday's post-grand final ceremony at No. 1 Oval, Dallas Baldwin's thoughts were with his family.
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Just ten days after his wife, Claire, gave birth, Baldwin was on the road to Tamworth to coach the Inverell Saints women as they sought to end the Gunnedah Bulldogs' reign and claim a premiership of their own.
"I probably should have stayed at home with my wife and my new daughter. I was hoping I wasn't going to be a bad dad," Baldwin joked in his post-match speech.
In reality, being away from his family only made the second-year coach more determined to pull off the seemingly impossible.
The Bulldogs had not lost a game since the first round of the 2020 season, and as Baldwin said they had "been the benchmark" for the competition from its inception.
![Dallas Baldwin was overcome with emotion after the Inverell Saints prevailed over the Gunnedah Bulldogs by a single point on Saturday. Picture by Zac Lowe. Dallas Baldwin was overcome with emotion after the Inverell Saints prevailed over the Gunnedah Bulldogs by a single point on Saturday. Picture by Zac Lowe.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/ijfQKXbsEKgSKGW5xB5NiF/357c2a7b-1e96-47ba-ad83-c8f54460f309.jpg/r213_196_4000_2712_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
But this year, the Saints made it clear that felling Gunnedah and claiming the silverware were their only priorities.
The first match between the two sides in 2022 was decided by 47 points in favour of the Bulldogs. The next two, however, were decidedly closer.
A draw and a three-point loss instilled in Baldwin the iron-clad belief that the Saints could score the upset when it mattered most.
"[Despite] that first loss in the semis, we knew we could do it," he said, referring to the team's 36-point defeat in the second semi-final.
"We had a tough couple of weeks prior to that with a passing in the club, so that hit home and it was our motivation this week."
Given Gunnedah's speed and skill with ball in hand, Baldwin knew that Inverell's best bet was to pile on the pressure and force the Bulldogs into errors.
Aside from a brief period in the second quarter when rain made that game plan difficult to implement, the Saints stuck to it well.
The lead traded hands regularly, and despite his side's calmness on field, Baldwin "couldn't look" as Kayla Sims lined up to kick the matchwinning goal with less than two minutes remaining.
"Breathe it in, don't think, just focus on kicking the ball," was all that was going through Sims' head at that moment.
"We try not to drop our heads very much. When they were up, we needed to lift so we did. We knew if we played our footy, we could win it," Sims said.
The goal pushed Inverell to a 5.5.35 to 5.4.34 victory, and sparked deafening celebrations from their supporters, who counted the Saints' men's team and most of the Tamworth Swans among their number.
"[Claire] was devastated when I left this morning," Baldwin said, with his eyes full of tears.
"It makes it all worthwhile to leave them. That win's for young Harriet."
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