West Gambier 76 d Casterton Sandford 44
WEST Gambier proved it is ready for the 2018 Western Border Netball Association finals series with a comfortable victory over Casterton Sandford on its home court at Island Park.
While the end result weighted heavily it the Roos’ favour, it was not all smooth sailing, with the Cats well and truly contesting the game in the opening quarter.
Buoyed by their strong victory over South Gambier in Round 15, the Cats came out in their clash with West Gambier ready to challenge, but the, now third-ranked Roos, and while West struggled to find any flow or easy connection in offence, the Cats were able to work their way through the Roos defence and engage in what was a goal-for-goal battle.
The Cats only trailed by two at the first change but the Roos regrouped at quarter time and came out more focussed and committed – both defensively and offensively – and the tide turned quickly, with West scoring quickly and the Cats starting to make errors with ball in hand and coughing up possession.
Carlee Davey was a prime over for the Roos as she started to find her drives to the circle’s top with ease, allowing her to then easily deliver to Lisa McGregor and Tahlia Earl, who outsized their opponents – Nat Rhook and Sharna Fidler.
The Cats defensive duo was tight checking and tenacious, but the weight of possession started to tell and after a strong opening quarter, the Cats offensive line started to hesitate with its delivery, allowing Maddy Teakle to create a lot of turnover ball.
The vastly improved Roos goal keeper also rebounded strongly so any missed shots resulted in turnovers.
The margin was 15 at the main break and the Roos continued to build their lead in the second half.
The Cats did make changes with Christine Harris moving out to goal attack where her netball smarts helped Casterton Sandford set up better entries into the shooting circle, while the move of Madalene Cleary into the centre also gave the Cats some speed and surety on the drive and Tori Perry seemed more comfortable back in goal shooter where she could help work the angles to find Harris in space.
However, Teakle continued to be disruptive, while Davey and McGregor continued to find each other in good space and in the end, it was a comfortable 32-goal victory.
North Gambier 48 d East Gambier 46
THE final scoreline suggests a tight, defensive battle and that is what the clash between Western Border netball’s North and East Gambier was at the weekend – a genuine finals like game.
The first quarter was the highest scoring of the match, with Caroline Davey setting the bar high, netting 15-from-16, as East did not quite apply the pressure required up court to deny the star shooter possession.
At the other end, it was hard work, with the East front-line forced into a number of moves to shake off the Tigers defence to work the ball safely into the hands of Tenille Gray and Sarah Lock.
Basically, it was just that bit easier for the Tigers to score and at the first break, they were four goals clear.
It was a similar story in the second quarter, although the defensive pressure did ramp up from the Bulldogs, denying Amanda O’Shaughnessy and Kaitlin Egan easy access to the circle’s edge and giving circle defenders Morgan Amy and Bo Creek more chance to pick up turnover ball.
It was still hard work at the other end, as East worked the angles and used a number of passes to work their way into good feeding position with the margin extending to seven at the main break.
Keen to not allow the Tigers to remain in control, the Bulldogs came out firing in the third quarter and while the match remained a defensive stoush that saw the team with ball in hand having to work hard to maintain possession, East started to find better space in attack, with Sara Smith playing with renewed confidence as she hit the circle hard.
Gray and Lock also continued to work hard to create space for each other and with McCallum never shying away from a challenge, the Bulldogs started to work their way back into the contest.
Defensively, the Bulldogs also lifted another notch, with McCallum and Tyne Bosko earning some offensive contact calls with their determination to deny Egan and O’Shaughnessy an easy path to the circle’s edge.
The pressure over the feed also gave Bo Creek a chance to come into her own as she started to get her hands to balls and create turnovers which Gray and Lock were able to convert.
The margin was back to four at the final change and the Tigers looked to inject some fresh legs into their line-up with Emily Close heading to the defensive wing and Ash Kalantarian moving to centre.
The move did little to change the Bulldogs’ momentum and East did get it back to one after scoring the first three goals of the final quarter before the arm wrestle continued and North held on for a two-goal victory.
The tense, physical contest was a glimpse into the kind of netball we can expect in the 2018 finals series.
Millicent 68 d South Gambier 38
MILLICENT went through its paces in the final round clash with South Gambier – the club unlucky enough to be the team to have to play the reigning premiers four times in the 2018 Western Border Netball Association competition.
Despite starting without Hayley Dunn on court in the first half – which gave Madi Haggett more court time in goal keeper ahead of the finals series – and resting Donna Denton, after an outstanding first half and Lisa Duldig, who was also as consistent as ever in centre, for the second half the Saints managed to still take a 30-goal victory.
Arguably, the resting of the senior trio gave the team’s young guns a chance to shine and Madi Turner, who has performed at a high level in 2018 on both the defensive wing and in centre, was again damaging.
Turner created turnovers in the first half on the defensive wing and then used her pace to great effect when driving into the goal third in the second half when she took the centre bib.
Paige Nitschke was also a shining light.
Her no-nonsense approach saw her hit the circle hard and feed accurately in the first half when she was on the attacking wing and then when she moved into shooter in the second half she was outstanding with her moves on the baseline and she finished from long range.
Her sister Hannah Nitschke entered the game on the attacking wing and their connection was impressive as Hannah Nitschke often let go of long balls to find Paige Nitschke in the back space and in range.
Coach Demi Verbena also was on fire in the second half, using quick ball movement and strong use of angles to open up space for herself or Paige Nitschke.
However, Zoe Duncan did make the star goal attack earn her possessions, with some tight checking, especially in the first half, while Alyssa Boylan never gave up and found some turn over ball when the Saints were less than precise with their delivery.
Imogen Walker ran hard all day and was the key feeder for the Demons, while Georgia Hood has arguably been one of the most consistent Demons in 2018 and she again was the go to shooter and finished with good accuracy from long range.
Millicent will now turn its focus to its second semi-final outing against North Gambier in two weeks time, while the Demons will head back to the drawing board for 2019.
