Maddy Whittall inspires Canberra Olympic to back-to-back Capital Football NPLW grand final wins

But Whittall, the player of the match in the Capital Football NPLW grand final? Her eyes are locked on her two-year-old son Eli, stepping his way through the photographers and kicking drink bottles as if they were soccer balls.

Safe to say those moments made Canberra Olympic's 4-3 grand final win over Belconnen United on Saturday mean just that little bit more.

"It is super special, it's really cool. He's always been so passionate about soccer, he came to the World Cup with us and loved it," Whittall said.

"It was just really cool to do this with him."

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A 15-minute blitz laid the platform for the one-goal win that saw Olympic claim back-to-back grand final victories having already topped the league this year.

The pain of losing a grand final never quite goes away. There will always be those "what if" moments - no matter how many titles you win either side of it.

Even so, Belconnen arrived determined to avenge the heartbreak of last year's grand final loss - but they were facing an uphill battle after Olivia Gurney struck in the 20^th minute to give Olympic the lead.

Whittall doubled the advantage 10 minutes later - but the best was yet to come.

Alexandra Cook's long-range penalty flew straight through the gloves of the Belconnen goalkeeper to give Olympic a 3-0 lead and put the club on the cusp of another premiership-championship double.

Talia Backhouse gave her side a glimmer of hope when she scored Belconnen's first goal in the dying minutes of the first half. When Reilly Yuen scored six minutes into the second half, Belconnen had more than a glimmer.

But just as quick as they'd started to close the gap, Olympic blew it open again. Bessie Riethmuller's stoppage time goal gave Belconnen one final shot to level the scores and send the game into extra-time.

But the league leaders held firm as chants of "Olympic" began to ring around Deakin.

"I was very confident we were going to show up and perform, especially after losing the semi-final to them," Whittall said.

"I just thought we were really going to put it on. I just think I was confident in myself and confident in the whole team that we were going to show up and perform.

"It's good to work really hard for the whole season, come out with the minor premiership, and then after losing the semi to Belco, to come out and put on that performance against them to win the whole thing, it's pretty special."

Belconnen coach Scott Conlon struggled to sum up the feeling of falling short on the final day.

"Just empty," Conlon said.

"We came here with so much belief, so much more belief than last year when we made a couple of finals and were just happy to be there. We really had a burning desire and a feeling we could do it, and unfortunately we just threw up one of our worst performances of the season on the wrong day.

"We just didn't play with the quality with the ball that we can. Olympic might have defended better, but I really think we let ourselves down with supporting options, decision-making, timing.

"Everyone was just a little bit off."

AT A GLANCE

Capital Football NPLW grand final: CANBERRA OLYMPIC 4 (Olivia Gurney, Maddy Whittall, Alexandra Cook, Vanessa Ryan goals) bt BELCONNEN UNITED 3 (Talia Backhouse, Reilly Yuen, Bessie Riethmuller goals) at Deakin Stadium. Player of the match: Maddy Whittall.

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