THE race to stay within reach of finals spots will be on in earnest when Woorinen (eighth) and Tyntynder (sixth) clash at Tigerland on Saturday afternoon.
While both clubs are well and truly in contention for the top five, a loss would make the task of making finals more difficult.
While Tyntynder returned to the winners’ list last Saturday with a 16-goal win over the Raiders, Woorinen are in desperate need of a win after losses to Balranald and Lake Boga in the past fortnight.
Both the Tigers and Bulldogs have proven that their best is good enough to contend with the leading teams, but they just haven’t shown their best often enough.
Tyntynder coach Kelsey Rowe hoped her side might have finally turned the corner last Saturday.
“It’s a really important game for us, which we’ve spoken about,” Rowe told The Guardian.
“We sit on par with Woorinen in terms of both ladder position and form, and we’re keen to hopefully get the four points.
“Coming off last week, it was good to win, but really we’re just looking to play consistent netball and play at that high level for four quarters, rather than for just two quarters.
“We need to start making sure that when we are winning, we’re having good wins and not just scraping across the line.
“I think our attacking end needs to be really clinical against their defence.
“They have some tall defenders so we just need to be a bit smarter with our ball movement and if we can do that, then I think we’ll put ourself in a good place to get the result we want.”
Both teams are expected to have unchanged line-ups.
Woorinen coach Tayla Bennett expected a tough but even contest against the steadily improving Bulldogs.
“They (Tyntynder) are a great team across the court and I think we will match up nicely against them, but that said, we will be looking at those match-ups closely and making sure that we put our best out there as a collective,” Bennett said.
“I believe our versatility will be an asset to our game this week, we’ve got a lot of combinations that we can utilise to win some ball.
“Our defensive pressure is also something we’ve been building over the last couple of weeks, so we look forward to putting that out there again.
“I think we’ve been playing some good netball and we just want to keep that ball rolling as a collective, but it’s going to take a whole team effort this week and we look forward to the challenge.”
Tyntynder will be hoping for strong performances from midcourters Elvie Kelly-Britten and Demi Wall, both of whom were instrumental in the win last Saturday, while goal shooter Bridget Dedini will also have a key role to play.
While Tessa Demaria spent some time in the midcourt against Balranald last weekend, a return to the Tigers’ defensive third could be on the cards, with her head-to-head match-up against Rowe likely to help decide which team comes out on top.
Tip – Tyntynder to win by two goals.
