THE interleague senior netball encounter between Central Rivers and a grossly overmatched and outclassed Hoppers Crossing Netball Association side turned out to be little more than a glorified training run for the hosts.
“We didn’t know what to expect from them,” Rivers coach Georgia Styles said after the game.
“Being a Melbourne-based association, I thought they could be very, very good.”
That was not quite the case as a massive gulf in talent was evident from the start and when the final horn blew to put the visitors out of their misery the scoreline read 80-13.
Not accustomed to interleague play and certainly not this level of competition, the HCNA team’s plight was worsened just before half-time when their shooter went down with an ankle injury and they were reduced to just seven players.
“They play 10-minute quarters, not 15, so they were a little bit shocked,” Styles said of her exhausted opponents.
Their fatigue was voiced in the final term when one said after a whistle blew, “please, don’t stop the clock”.
For the Two Blues, it was more a fun get-together than any sort of meaningful hit-out.
“It was probably more a team-bonding day today as the girls don’t play that often together,” Styles said.
“Eliza (Perryman), she didn’t know any of the players being a Golden Rivers girl (Wandella) and she fitted in with the team really well.”
When you win by close to 70 points it’s hard to find any player who didn’t perform well.
“(Nyah’s) Taigan O’Shannassy was really good along with shooter Tayla Bennett from Woorinen and Taylen Blanchford from Nyah also stood out but you could almost say all of them,” the coach said.
“It was a little bit disappointing when Sunraysia pulled out, but there’s not much you can do about that. We struggled last year to get a side whereas this year these girls were really keen to play.”
A tougher test would have been greatly appreciated, but the coach believes better things are ahead for her enthusiastic squad.
“We haven’t had it here for a while, but I think we’ve got a good bunch of senior girls that really want to play together,” she said.
“In the next couple of years, I think we will be really good. We might talk to the league now and see if we can get down to Melbourne for the association champs. The juniors do it, so I don’t see why the seniors can’t as well. If the girls are keen and want to go, why not? Let them go.”
