South Melbourne have finally beaten their grand final hoodoo and clinched the Women’s Premier League (WPL) Victorian title.

They had a lot riding on the Sunday match, after they had lost last year’s WPL grand final to Sandringham and the past two Women’s State Knockout Cup finals.

Standing in the way of the win was fellow Greek sponsored club Heidelberg United, who controlled much of the play on Sunday.

WPL coach of the season John Kyrgios saw his Heidelberg girls up the pressure on the cagey South Melbourne team.

By half-time, no team had gotten past the 0-0 deadlock, despite their best attempts.

It wasn’t until the 77th minute that Heidelberg’s defence was breached when nobody tracked Natalie Martineau’s run and the captain cooly slotted home the winning goal.

Coach Matt Maslak’s relief fed into the crowd, with South Melbourne fans cheering, realising that only 13 minutes of game time remained for Heidelberg to equalise.

That wasn’t meant to be, and as the whistle sounded, the South Melbourne girls could finally hold up the long awaited WPL cup.

Coach Masalak says the win is a testament to the efforts of the girls all season.

“Absolutely fantastic. It’s been a long, hard season for the girls and after finishing the league 11 points clear of everyone, the girls have deserved what they got,” Maslak said.

For the Greek sponsored club, it caps a huge year, with the NPL men’s seniors also securing their state cup and making it into the semi finals of the NPL grand final series.