AFTER their first loss of the season last weekend, Swan Hill will hope to return to the winners’ list taking on hometown rivals Tyntynder in the King’s Birthday weekend clash on Saturday.
Despite going down to Woorinen by just two goals, the Swans have been producing some of their best clinical netball so far this season.
The Bulldogs, however, have had a slower start to the year.
Struggling to find consistency in their line-up and build momentum as a team, they’ve only won two out of their seven games played so far.
Coming off a significant loss to the Mallee Eagles last weekend, Tyntynder coach Teagan Lawry told The Guardian they were looking to get their spirits back up this weekend with a win.
“I feel like this year anything is possible,” she said.
“I think before last weekend we had really just started to combine a little bit better and get a bit of a roster together that’s consistent.
“But we played without Demi (Wall) on Saturday and we’re without (Monica Ellis) this weekend, so like lots of clubs, I think we are still trying to fill spots which can make that consistency a little bit tricky.”
Demi Wall will return to the court, providing a needed boost to the midcourt in the absence centre-player Ellis. It was also likely young gun Issy Corrie would step up again this week to the A Grade side.
“We will be focusing on us and the things that we know we can do well,” Lawry said.
“Obviously Swan Hill has an extraordinary line-up from goal keeper all the way through to their goal shooter, but the focus is on us – if we can all bring our A-game on Saturday then I know we will be competitive.”
Swan Hill coach Madeleine Nalder said she was looking forward to taking on the Dogs and taking into consideration what went wrong in their loss last week.
“Obviously no one ever likes losing, but I think the key is to sort of reflect and think about where we can improve and what things that we need to do,” she said.
“Against Woorinen we didn’t have a great start and they got the jump on us, so we just want to make sure that we’re playing as consistently as we can, and capitalising when we do have the ball.”
Experienced shooters in Zoe Morris and Ingrid Condely will be a key duo for the Swans, likely going head to head with defenders Nicola Miliano and Bridget Dedini.
It will also be a fierce battle in the midcourt against Kelsey McCoy and Toni Rivett, who will likely face each in the centre circle.
For the Swans, their aim was to make sure they are working together and applying the fundamentals to play some clean netball.
“Everyone’s got to do their little bit to support each other, and that’s how we want to play as a team,” Nalder said.
“It’s more about what we are doing as a collective – being composed in attack, making sure we are applying pressure in defence and all those sort of really basic things.”
Saturday’s match will be played later at 2.20pm, and with both teams vying for the win, it was set to be a hard-fought game.
“It’s always a good clash against Swan Hill and Tyntynder over a lot of years, regardless of where each team is on the ladder,” Nalder said.
