THE Mallee Eagles have ended Tyntynder’s late-season surge in form with a dominant 16-goal win in Sunday’s elimination final at Greenham Park.
It was a win born out of a commanding first-half display from the Eagles, who opened a 14-goal lead by half-time, effectively ending the contest – and with it the Bulldogs’ season.
Tyntynder came into the game as a team on the charge, having won their last two home-and-away games of the season to scrape into fifth spot, and looked set to challenge the Eagles, who had lost two of their last three matches.
The dream run wasn’t meant to be for the red, white and blue army, who were found wanting when it mattered most as the Eagles dominated proceedings in the tricky conditions to advance to this Sunday’s first semi-final against Balranald, with the final score 52-36.
Mallee shooters Gemma Miller and Megan Thorneycroft combined perfectly to share the scoring duties with 26 goals each.
Eagles co-coach Alicia Harvey was pleased with her team’s fast start.
“We’ve been on the other end of having a slow start this season where we’ve been eight goals down in the first quarter and it’s so hard to play catch-up netball,” Harvey said.
“Our main goal in finals is to just come out firing, and that’s what we did today.
“We had (Tyntynder) on the back foot pretty quick and then we just fought and fought – kept that lead and momentum pretty much throughout the whole game.
“Jess (Jobling, co-coach) and I were absolutely delighted with that result.
“It was a 60-minute effort from every player on the court and from our bench players as well.
“We gelled seamlessly as a team and every player performed their role individually how we asked them to, and we got away with the win, nice and clean.”
Tyntynder made several changes and utilised the rolling subs throughout the match as they tried desperately to find a combination that stopped the Eagles’ run.
Harvey and Jobling, on the other hand, were content to stick with their starting seven for the bulk of the knockout contest, with Harvey impressed with her team’s ability to counteract their opponents’ fresh legs in the warm and windy conditions.
“I felt we were able to gel better as a team and work with the players we had on the court, which helped us maintain momentum,” Harvey said.
“I think our ability to gel together as a team proved to be a bit of a difference and I also think our shooters were a bit more accurate in the windy conditions.
“There were good match-ups across the court and neither team really had a height advantage at either end.
“The rebounds in both our attack and defence were pretty even, but credit to our defenders, they work seamlessly every week and got the job done again.
“(Tyntynder) actually beat us in the last quarter.
“I think we just lost a bit of momentum in the last quarter, which was okay in the context of the game.
“It came down to those one-percenters, like following up, chasing the ball and the little errors that we made by fatigue in the warmer weather, like stepping in that last quarter.
“Things like that are easy fixes which we’ll work on at training and make sure we bring our best against Balranald on Sunday.”
Harvey was one of the Eagles’ better players, along with shooters Thorneycroft and Miller, while Tyntynder were well served by Kelsey Rowe and Monica Ellis in what proved to be their final match of the season.
That isn’t the case for the Eagles, however, who will take on Balranald in what looms as an enticing first semi-final at Cohuna this Sunday, with both clubs facing the prospect of playing elimination netball from this point on.
“Coming up against a team like Balranald, who are a premiership team from a couple of years ago, will be tough but we’re ready for the challenge,” Harvey said.
“They have a lot of very handy players and a lot of experienced players so it will definitely be a good match-up, but we know we’re up there with the top teams and they (Balranald) are as well.
“It’s a bit similar to Tyntynder in that we played them so long ago and only played them once this season, so it’s hard to get a read on them, but we got the win that day despite both teams having very different line-ups – we’ll take some confidence from that result.”
Final Whistle
Mallee Eagles 52
Tyntynder 36
