It may have dropped to freezing levels at the State Netball Centre last night, but teams were raring to go for an exciting night of netball. To begin the round, players, coaches and staff observed a Welcome to Country as part of the league’s inaugural First Nations Round, presented by RACV.
Championship
Boroondara Express (62) defeated by Casey Demons (87)
North East Blaze (58) defeated by City West Falcons (68)
Peninsula Waves (46) defeated by Wilson Storage Southern Saints (66)
Ariels (41) defeated by Melbourne University Lightning (59)
Redemption was on the line in the North East Blaze and City West Falcons Championship game. After a couple of narrow losses, Blaze was looking to set themselves up for finals while the Falcons wanted to redeem their round 1 loss and showcase their longstanding winning history.
It was a tight battle between the two sides but missed connections between Georgia Moody and Nyah Allen became glaringly obvious once young gun Melissa Oloamanu stepped out onto the court. The defensive star covered every inch of the circle, and her footwork and body angles provided her with timely intercepts, rebounds and touches, helping her side to extend their lead.
Supporting Oloamanu, Montana Holmes and Zoe Davies provided speed and drive to get the ball down the court and into the hands of stronghold shooter Jane Cook. Between them there was an array of deflections and gains as they set up a very clinical triangular zone defence to prevent any fast breaks from Blaze.
Cook looked right at home on the baseline and unlike the round 1 match, was able to capitalise on her shots beautifully. With her newfound stride, the Blaze team were stuck on how to prevent the tall shooter from receiving the ball, rotating all three defenders (Kaitlyn Black, Ruby Turner and Sienna Allen) and trialing a myriad of defensive setups to limited success. It was this lack of defensive pressure that provided the Falcons with the win.
Division 1
Boroondara Express (55) defeated Casey Demons (42)
North East Blaze (55) defeated City West Falcons (51)
Peninsula Waves (58) defeated Wilson Storage Southern Saints (51)
Ariels (48) defeated Melbourne University Lightning (46)
Division 1 was a tight contest across the board, with teams showing plenty of grit and determination to upset ladder leaders. It was a momentous occasion for Ariels, who secured their first win over Melbourne University Lightning.
It was a full court effort from both teams, often going back and forth down the court before a goal was scored. Each team had a different challenge at hand when it came to scoring – for Lightning it was finding the right feed into their shooters, a few missed connections evident with Eliza Gollant struggling to settle into GA.
Connections between the Lightning midcourt shone through as the Ariels were challenged moving down the court, their midcourters executing a perfect line defence in the centre third to push their opponents out wide and easily pick off cross-court balls.
If it wasn’t picked off in the middle third, goal defender Kirby Elliot worked very hard to deflect passes coming in to the Ariels and keep goal shooter Keely Boudrie offside. However, the evenly matched game came down to the dying moments in the last quarter. Lightning were not giving up, using their bench and voices to create a chamber of noise designed to intimidate Ariels. However Boudrie remained unfazed by the noise and sunk a long shot to solidify an Ariels win.
19/Under
Boroondara Express (38) defeated by Casey Demons (46)
North East Blaze (42) defeated by City West Falcons (55)
Peninsula Waves (47) defeated by Wilson Storage Southern Saints (77)
Ariels (48) defeated by Melbourne University Lightning (60)
In the 19/Under division there were some huge blowouts that were not predicted for this round. The biggest margin was between the Peninsula Waves and Wilson Storage Southern Saints, where the Waves failed to lift off the ground after receiving an array of penalties to start the game.
For the Saints, it was a defensive masterclass featuring Megan Galetti, Mia Van Wyk, Grace Valele and Holly Garac. Each time Waves travelled down the court they were cautious in passing into the circle as one of the four defenders usually got a tip on the pass or claimed an outright intercept. Galetti and Valele worked in harmony, utilising both body-on defence and a split circle to confuse the space and make the most of any loose balls.
Coming on in the second quarter, there was an immediate impact from young Samoan shooter Malia Seumanutafa. Waves defenders couldn’t figure out how to defend her, which allowed her to shoot 20 goals in the second quarter and come off in the third after scoring another 12.
The shining light for Peninsula Waves was 19/U Victorian team player Eryn Stocker. An absolute workhorse transitioning down the court, Stocker starred with some of her signature perfect passes, her patience to wait for the right option and deep pocket positioning in the second phase. However, it was not enough to shut down the full court effort of the Saints.
Geelong Cougars will host Hawks Netball for their home games on Sunday 5 June to complete the round.
