BOTH Woorinen and Swan Hill will get an early indication of where they’re placed in 2024 when the two Central Murray heavyweights do battle at Woorinen tomorrow.
Both clubs have undergone major personnel changes over the off-season and will enter the new year with very different line-ups, with the Swans set to be without joint coaches Madeleine Nalder and Kelsey McCoy, along with Ingrid Condely, and the Tigers missing Tayla Bennett, Emily Siely and Carlee Hazlett from last years’ side.
Not taking to the court this season, Bennett is instead looking forward to leading Woorinen from the sidelines, with the club turning to their team of talented juniors to help fill the voids left by Bennett, Siely and Hazlett.
“We’ve looked towards our juniors this year,” she said.
“There are lots of kids who have been excelling with their netball at our club in recent seasons and I think it’s about time we gave them their opportunity.
“Ava Crow has been playing consistent A grade netball for a few seasons now and Willow Conlan will play this weekend also.
“They’ve been playing interleague and high-level netball for the past few seasons and are certainly ready to take that next step.
“We’re going into this season with a very different line-up with but we’ll still have plenty of experience playing alongside them in each third as well.”
Crow is expected to continue her development in the Tigers’ midcourt alongside the experienced Jaimee Beasy, while Conlan will take over as goal shooter in the absence of Bennett.
The player likely to hold the key to Woorinen’s fortunes tomorrow will be experienced defender Tessa Demaria, who could have the job of quelling Swan Hill’s Zoe Morris.
As the reigning premiers, Swan Hill head into the new season as the team to beat despite the loss of several key players. With another even competition expected in 2024, tomorrow’s match against Woorinen looms as the perfect test for the Swans, according to joint coach Madeleine Nalder.
“We’re going to know straight away where we’re at because they (Woorinen) are a quality outfit and have been for a very long time,” Nalder told The Guardian this week.
“We’ve always had tight tussles against them and I expect tomorrow to be no different.
Ssimilar to the last couple of seasons, I’m anticipating that given the evenness of the league — any side can beat anyone.
“It won’t just be this weekend that will be a tough game, I think it will be a similar theme most weeks, to be honest.
“I think it will take us a couple of weeks to work out what combinations are going to work best for us across the court with us having a few changes to our side this season.
“It always takes a few weeks to settle most years anyway, but we’ll look at a few different combinations this week and then reassess.”
The Swans are still expected to have plenty of experience on court tomorrow, with Kelly Bonney, Karli McIntyre and Carly-Marie Clark, along with Morris, potentially stepping up for the opening match of the season.
“With plenty of experience still at their disposal, the Swans will go into the match as warm favourites despite Bennett expecting a strong defensive display from her side.
“We’ll be sticking to what we know and playing to our systems,” Bennett said.
“We want to play a high-defensive-pressure game.
“We’ve worked a lot this pre-season and spoken about how we want to play and we’ve set some goals for the start of the season.
“Saturday will be a big test of whether we can we maintain our consistently for four quarters.”
Tip – Swan Hill to win by five goals.
