A DETERMINED Cohuna will be the next challenge facing premiership favourites Lake Boga, with the two clubs set to clash this weekend.
The Magpies go into this Saturday’s match as red-hot favourites, with the unbeaten ladder leaders so far having had all the answers asked of them throughout the opening nine rounds of the home-and-away season.
Cohuna, on the other hand, will be desperate to atone for last Saturday’s shock loss to Kerang, with the 13-goal defeat leaving them clinging to a top-five spot and at risk of falling from the finals race, with sixth-placed Tyntynder now nipping at their heels.
It was a performance that disappointed Cohuna A-grade coach Georgia Anderson, who this week told The Guardian she was expecting a response from her team when they hit the court Saturday afternoon.
“Last week was definitely disappointing but I think we play our best netball against the better teams, to be honest, and the competition is so close this season that it’s hard to anticipate what’s going to happen week to week,” Anderson said.
“When we’ve come up against some of the better teams we’ve played really good netball, and when we are all at 100 per cent capacity we have the ability to compete with the best.
“We need to get away to a good start.
“We know if we don’t have the best first quarter it will be hard to claw back so the start will be crucial this Saturday.
“We had two weeks off leading into last Saturday and we were slow out of the blocks, but in saying that, they (Kerang) played some really good netball and will challenge a lot of teams in the second half of the season.
“We want to be a bit stronger in our attack end.
“We’ve been pretty good defensively and that’s been our big strength, but defence all the way down the court and getting a bit smarter in our attacking end will be a big focus for us.”
With Anderson back playing, the Kangas now have several defensive options to go up against Lake Boga’s dominant goalers Katie Carmichael and Sarah Hepburn, with Ebony Black, Carly Geary, Marli Easton and Anderson all among the potential opponents for the sisters.
Geary looms as a key player Saturday, with the experienced defender also having to switch her talents to the opposite end of the court, having scored nine goals last Saturday after taking ownership of the GA bib.
While Cohuna look set to go into the match with an unchanged line-up, the Magpies will be at full strength, with defender Sophie Peacock due to return to the side after missing her team’s nine-goal win over NNW United last weekend.
Having won all eight matches so far, Lake Boga were tested against the Demons last Saturday, with assistant coach Sheridan Harrop expecting another tough encounter against the Kangas on Saturday.
“We’re trying to keep the girls pretty grounded and we’re just taking things week by week and not looking too far ahead at this point in the season,” Harrop said.
“We’ll be treating Cohuna as a threat this weekend and as a team that will be challenging us right from the first quarter.
“They’ll be pretty determined to put in a good performance after last week, I think, and we’re certainly expecting a tough contest.
“It’s great to see them (Cohuna) up in the top five.
“Even though we expected them to win last week, we’re not underestimating them at all.
“We’re actually looking forward to the match-up and seeing how well they are going and how far they’ve improved.”
In terms of the way the Magpies will play, Harrop said she expected them to focus on their defensive pressure, which had held the ladder leaders in good stead so far this year.
“We’ll make a couple of changes with our rotations across the court but we’ll go in with the mindset of creating forced errors where we can,” Harrop said.
“A lot of it will be down to our pressure, our ability to maintain possession and working the ball into our attacking end.
“We’ll be focusing on applying pressure on the return down to their attacking end also as we know they have some talented goalies that when they’re on, they’re on.”
Although Cohuna have the potential to cause an upset, a full-strength Lake Boga should have too much firepower across the court, with a ninth straight win for the Magpies expected.
Tip – Lake Boga to win by seven goals.
