FOR the second year in a row, Balranald and the Mallee Eagles will do battle in a winner takes all final, with a preliminary final encounter the prize for the victor at Cohuna this Sunday.
Last year it was an elimination final where the two clubs clashed, with the Eagles recording a seven-goal win to end the Roos dreams of back-to-back premierships.
This year it may be a week later into the finals, but it will be no less important, with Balranald coming off an eight-goal loss to Swan Hill last Saturday and the Eagles recording a dominant victory over Tyntynder.
Although the final result didn’t go the way they would have liked, Balranald co-coach Jess Parry told The Guardian this week that she is expecting an improved performance from her young side on Sunday.
“We definitely take confidence out of last weekend, obviously the result didn’t go our way, but at the same time we know that when we do play our style of netball and play it confidently, we can be as good if not better than the best teams,” Parry said.
“There’s a lot of confidence in that knowing that when we play to our strengths, we are hard to beat.
“We always have close games against them (Mallee Eagles) and they’re always very competitive.
“We’ve only played once this year and it’s hard to get a read on that game because they’ve lost Kasey (Torr) to injury and that was our second game after I hurt myself, so we were a bit unsettled.
“We then lost Brie (Galvin) to injury too, so both teams have altered since then to cover injuries so I think it will be a very different game this time around.
“They have some really strong netballers across the whole court, they’ll be really hard to beat and we know that we’ll need to be at our best if we are to progress to next week.”
It was a sentiment shared by Mallee Eagles co-coach Alicia Harvey this week, who will be hoping for a repeat of her team’s five-goal win against the Roos back in round 8.
“We’ll look into what combinations worked well last time, what players were best on the day and where we might have struggled or excelled in that particular game too,” Harvey said.
“But it was a long time ago and we are two very different looking sides now.
“We just need to focus on our game and our plays and play the netball we have been playing all year that cemented our spot in finals in the first place.
“All that being said, we know Balranald are a team that are very good at momentum and no matter how much of a lead a team has on them, they are always able to bounce back.
“We know we need to come out firing and hold our centres throughout the game.”
Elli-Jane Pollard will return to Balranald’s defensive end this time, having played goal shooter back in round 8, with her combination with Grace Morton and Bree Hodgson continuing to develop with every game.
The same can be said for the Eagles defensive third however, with Nevaeh Roberts, Laura Sheahan and Leah McKenzie one of the key reasons for the Eagles strong 2024 campaign.
With both clubs having a strong emphasis on a defence-first attitude, Parry is expecting a tough contest between two evenly matched teams.
“It will be quite a defensive game, both their defence and and ours are quite strong so there is sure to be a lot of pressure applied on the goalies,” Parry said.
“As much as it will be a defensive game, it will also be about who can handle the pressure the best in attack because neither side will get multiple opportunities to score when you don’t make the most of the first one.
“They (Mallee Eagles) are a quick team through the mid-court but we have a bit of speed in the right spots and will be able to match theirs I hope.
“If we can apply the defensive pressure that I know we’re capable, that will either slow them up or force them into some awkward spots and hopefully cause those turnovers.
“They are very quick and when you allow them to run, they are quite dominant in attack, but we’ll work together as a team to try and slow that down or take that away from them if we can.”
With both teams very evenly matched, this game will come down to the side that makes the most of their opportunities and wins the big moments, with Balranald’s height advantage in their defensive ring potentially having a big say in the end result.
Tip – Balranald to win by one goal.
