BALRANALD v LAKE BOGA
WITH very little separating Balranald and Lake Boga last season, another hard-fought contest is almost guaranteed clashing for the first time in 2023 on Saturday.
An extra-time win by Balranald in last year’s semi-final followed a 43-all round 11 encounter last year, with the finals loss driving the Magpies players to greater heights over the opening rounds.
The in-form team has wins against the Mallee Eagles, NNW United, Cohuna and Tyntynder so far.
While their four-goal victory over the Eagles in round 1 set tails wagging, beating the reigning premiers would almost make them premiership favourites.
Balranald will have other ideas however, coming off a dominant 40-goal win over Koondrook-Barham.
But their eight-goal loss to fellow top-five opposition Woorinen a week earlier is perhaps the best guide to the Roos’ current form.
Her side having failed that test, Balranald coach Jess Parry knew the importance of Saturday’s game, the premiership coach telling The Guardian her team was much better prepared than a fortnight ago.
“Round 1 wasn’t the best weather for netball, then we had the bye and we were probably a bit slack with our training leading into the Woorinen game and that showed,” Parry said.
“We’ve really worked hard over the past few weeks to rectify that and I feel we’re coming into this week a lot better prepared.
“But in saying that, we know that Lake Boga will be really strong and better than they were last season too.
“The big focus for us will be on our unforced errors and our discipline being better than it was against Woorinen, hopefully we can fix those areas up and get a different result.
“We took a fair bit from last week, a few of our girls will get a bit of confidence from that result and it probably emphasised a few areas that we really needed to work on.
“A couple of our individual stats were pretty poor with regards to turnovers that we caused and we know that we can’t take that same approach.”
While pleased with her team’s unbeaten start, Lake Boga coach Annie Stewart knew Balranald will be the first big test of the season – but she was confident they were up to it.
“The girls have been training really well and been showing a great work ethic, we’ve worked and battled hard over the last four weeks to secure the results we have,” Stewart said.
“Win or lose, we will be out there putting 100 percent in and working towards achieving our individual and team goals.”
While Parry and her strong attacking game will take a lot of focus from a Lake Boga perspective, Balranald will instead concentrate on nullifying the Magpies across the court and putting in a full four-quarter performance.
“Their whole team is all very dangerous and capable of influencing the game,” Parry said.
“They’re very strong under the ring with the Hepburn sisters and they’re both very accurate, so any mistakes we make through the midcourt we will pay for.
“Not only that, they also have a very fit and defensive midcourt and defensive end that will make us work really hard.
“We’ll just have to play smart, possession netball and work hard to get ourselves into the best positions – netball isn’t an overly complicated game if you don’t want it to be and when you come up against a good defensive side, generally the fitter and smarter team will come out on top.”
With Balranald having a point to prove, expect them to come out breathing fire – and determined to not lose two home games in a row.
Tip – Balranald to win by two goals.
COHUNA v SWAN HILL
COHUNA will be hoping to keep in touch with the top five by upsetting third-placed Swan Hill.
The Kangas have had a tough draw to start 2023, with games against Woorinen, Lake Boga and much-improved Kerang – and that continues against 2022 grand finalists Swan Hill, who will be full confidence thanks to their unbeaten start.
The Swans have flown under the radar after having the bye in the opening round, but immediately found their groove with big wins over Tooleybuc-Manangatang and NNW United interspersed with a 13-goal victory over the Mallee Eagles.
While Madeleine Nalder and Kelly Bonney both missed the win against the Demons, Cohuna will be without defender Danielle Sawyer for the next few weeks with a hand injury, making the home side’s hopes of a win even more unlikely.
Tip – Swan Hill to win by 14 goals.
NNW UNITED v TOOLEYBUC-MANANGATANG
NYAH-Nyah West United will be hoping to return to the winners’ list when they host Tooleybuc-Manangatang in a must-win game.
The Demons were found wanting against Swan Hill last Saturday, run all over during a 38-goal defeat.
Sitting in eighth place on the ladder and with just one win from their opening four games, the Demons simply must beat the Saints if they are to have any chance of competing for a finals berth come seasons end.
While Tooleybuc-Manangatang area team in rebuild mode, they’ll also be keen to upset their nearby neighbours, especially with Taylen Blachford to face off against her former side for the first time.
Tip – NNW United to win by 13 goals.
TYNTYNDER v KERANG
UNBEATEN Kerang face a danger game, with Tyntynder showing major signs of improvement last Saturday during their six-goal loss to Lake Boga.
Despite having just one win to their name so far, the Bulldogs fought tooth and nail against their more fancied rivals – and if not for a lacklustre second quarter, may well have stolen the win.
Saturday presents another opportunity to take a big scalp and put themselves in the conversation as a team to watch.
It won’t be an easy task against the Chloe Adams-led Blues, especially with a dominant midcourt containing Olivia Jones, Emma Wright and Zoe Livingston.
Tip – Kerang to win by five goals.
WOORINEN v KOONDROOK-BARHAM
WOORINEN will be keen to build off their last-start eight-goal win over the reigning premiers.
With the Raiders in rebuild mode, the Tigers can aim for a percentage-booster on their home court.
Koondrook-Barham have been steadily improving however, and despite losing by 40 goals to Balranald last weekend, will still fancy themselves of at least being competitive against the Tigers.
With no obvious match-up for Tayla Bennett in goals, in could be a long day for the visitors, especially if midcourters Carlee Hazlett and Jaimee Beasy can feed plenty of ball into the Tigers attacking third.
Tip – Woorinen to win by 25 goals.
