By Trevor Jackson
JUST like their male counterparts, the Pioneers women hit the floor in Millicent for two pre-season games on the weekend and walked away a win and a loss.
Both were close games and gave head coach Matt Sutton a good idea of what needs to be done before the season kicks off on April 23.
“I think it showed our preparation with low numbers – we haven’t been able to do five-on-five stuff too often at training,” he said.
“Some aspects of our offence and defence we need to develop and that’s what the games were for.
“Overall the effort and the willingness to try to execute what we are doing was great.
“We generated plenty of really good perimeter shots, so we just have to find more avenues to get more inside play.”
The women’s roster was also somewhat short, with four potential starters missing, which provided a chance for the younger members of the squad to hit the floor.
The side lost the services of Keryl Ousey and Emily Dawe to University, which provided more opportunity for the likes of Johanna Jones and Sohpie Miles, along with the incoming Georgia Winter.
“In the first game Georgia made four threes,” Sutton said.
“Her greatest asset is her shooting but she is young and has a lot to learn, which will come in time.
“Sophie and Johanna, it is fun to see them play and coach them in games, to see where they are improving and how we can help them.”
As for the effort, the women’s side has never been short of that.
Last season saw the girls down the ladder, but with some close games which could have gone either way.
They certainly provided plenty of entertainment along the way and their effort was never in doublt.
“That is certainly not by accident,” Sutton said.
“We try to have people in our group who are willing to put in some hard work.
“It is something we coach and talk about regularly.
“I am really happy the girls are willing to do that and the next part is skill development as well as our chemistry and knowing how the structure works.
“That is why we are playing these games, to learn and develop that.”
The work continues this weekend as the women’s side heads to Adelaide for further games.
“We have tried to organise as many games as we can,” Sutton said.
“We are off to Adelaide this weekend to play a couple of games.
“I was pleased with the opportunity over the weekend and it has given us a better focus of what we need to do going forward at training.
“There were some pleasing performances and the effort was really good.”
