CENTRAL MURRAY FOOTBALL NETBALL LEAGUE
PRELIMINARY FINAL SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 10
COHUNA RECREATION RESERVE – COURT 1
2.30PM MALLEE EAGLES v BALRANALD
MALLEE EAGLES KEY PLAYER
Kellie Walker
Perhaps the best goal shooter in the Central Murray, Walker’s name is constantly raised among coaches as the Eagles’ biggest threat. She uses her height to her advantage, rarely misses when she has the ball and it is always tough to prevent her getting it.
THE BURNING QUESTION
Can the Eagles rebound after last Saturday’s loss?
The Eagles had high hopes of going straight through to the grand final against Swan Hill last Saturday, but were found wanting in the first half, allowing the Swans to open up a nine-goal lead. While it was far from a heavy loss, it also showed the Eagles need to be at their best every week in order to compete against the best. Whether that has sapped some of their confidence remains to be seen.
BALRANALD KEY PLAYER
Jess Parry
The Balranald coach is one of the best players in the competition, capable of turning a game with a withering 10-minute burst. She will need to be at her best to turn around the qualifying final result, but rarely plays a bad game and will no doubt have her team thereabouts when the whips are cracking.
THE BURNING QUESTION
Can Balranald slow the Mallee Eagles’ scoring ability?
The Mallee Eagles’ big strength is their attacking half of the court, and this will clearly be a big focus for the Roos. The Eagles move the ball at breakneck speed and it will be Balranald’s ability to slow that ball movement down through the midcourt that will play a big part in restricting the Eagles’ ability to score – especially with dominant goalies Kellie Walker and Emelia Shannahan in attack.
HEAD-TO-HEAD
The teams have met twice this year, for one win each. Bragging rights sit with the Eagles after their five-goal qualifying final win – although Balranald were able to get the job done in their only encounter through the home-and-away season, with a one-goal win back in round 10 (56-55).
KEY MATCH-UP
Emelia Shannahan v Stevie Bibby
While any one of the seven match-ups will have a big bearing on the result – especially Kellie Walker and Elli Brougham – the contest between Shannahan and Bibby will be equally important. Much of the Mallee Eagles’ strength is their ability to score, and score quickly. Shannahan’s ability to not only impact on the scoreboard, but also feed Walker, is a key component of that. If Bibby can restrict Shannahan’s impact, that will take the Roos a long way towards victory.
MATCH PREVIEW
After playing out one of the classic qualifying finals two weeks ago, the Mallee Eagles and Balranald will again go head-to-head, with the prize at the end to be a spot in next Saturday’s grand final.
It’s been a long time since either club has played off in an A Grade decider. Now that both are within touching distance, tomorrow’s match will no doubt be hotly contested. The Eagles jumped out of the blocks in that match two weeks ago thanks to their midcourt pressure, opening up an early lead that the Roos were never able to peg back.
With that poor start fresh in her mind, Balranald coach Jess Parry will be doing everything possible to make sure lightning doesn’t strike twice.
“Hopefully this time around, we don’t have a slow start – we want to make sure we keep the pressure on them early and make sure we don’t give them as big of a lead early in the game like we did last time,” Parry told The Guardian in the lead-up to their season-defining encounter.
“So that will be a huge focus, but we also have a few little things in our game that we know we still need to improve on, which will also help in that regard.”
Balranald nearly didn’t make it to the preliminary final, after having to come from behind in last Sunday’s first semi-final against Lake Boga. That match went into overtime when scores were tied at the final siren.
Having to play extra minutes off the back of a six-day break may be a less than ideal preparation, but Parry felt that the encounter might give her young team a huge boost – and a quick injection of finals experience.
“We knew we were going to be up against it (against Lake Boga) – but to stick at it, force a draw and then secure a come-from-behind win in overtime will give us a huge amount of confidence to know that we can keep it together and win the close games,” Parry said.
“It was nerve-racking, but as we said at the end of the game, we were pretty happy with the reward because the girls put in a lot of effort with pre-season and keeping fit throughout the year.
“I think when you do find yourself in an overtime position, it’s your fitness that gets you across the line.
“Our midcourt stood up really well against Boga and a couple of our young girls grew two feet during that game because they really rose to the challenge and I think they will take a lot of confidence out of that.”
For the Mallee Eagles’ coach Vicki McDonald, it will be a matter of keeping things simple ahead of the do-or-die match. Her game plan of quick ball movement will likely to be a contributing factor in the outcome.
“It’ll take a full-court, whole-team effort from us to get the job done,” McDonald said.
“I think it’ll come down to the team who keeps their composure and maintains possession of the ball, especially at the start when the pressure will be at its greatest.
“It’ll be a close game and they match up with us really well. But every team is beatable at this point of the season, there’s very little separating the three teams left at the moment and it will just come down to the little things as to who gets the win.”
Parry agreed that the two sides are closely matched. With the Eagles possessing the competition’s premier goal shooter however, it’s their attacking half of the court that will clearly take much of Parry’s focus pre-game.
“Kellie (Walker) is a huge positive for them as their shooter, but in saying that, they are heavily reliant on her,” Parry said.
“In our favour, we have Elli (Brougham) who matches Kellie’s height really well – when we played them a couple of weeks ago, by the last quarter Elli had it worked out pretty well and was getting some great turnovers, so I’m sure she’ll take great confidence from that and hopefully she can bring that confidence into tomorrow’s game.”
“We need to put pressure on their feeds into the ring and their main scoring avenue and try and force some turnovers early – I think that will be the key, defensively we need to have pressure everywhere and in attack make sure we play possession netball.”
With a grand final the prize for the winner and with very little separating the two teams, the result could go either way in what will most likely be one of the most hotly contested games of the season.
Tip – Mallee Eagles to win by one goal.
