Lake Boga’s season of redemption will get underway tomorrow, with the Magpies to host Balranald in their opening game of 2024.
After being forced to wait a week longer than the other Central Murray clubs to get their season underway, Lake Boga will be desperate to atone for last year’s shock grand final loss to Swan Hill.
But netball operations manager and A grade assistant coach Sheridan Harrop told The Guardian the team has been quick to move forward over the off-season.
“We can’t wait to get under way, we played several practice matches in March but now we’re looking forward to getting out there and starting our season,” Harrop said.
“It’s (the grand final loss) one of those things that is in the back of our mind, but it won’t impact on the way we play this season and going forward.
“Last year was last year and while we want to get a different result come season’s end, the girls are only looking ahead one week at a time. We’ll keep reassessing our goals depending on who will play each week.”
Those goals will include tomorrow’s match-up against Balranald, who were extremely impressive in defeating Kerang by 20-goals in their season opening match last Saturday.
With Ella Mirtschin shooting a game high 35 goals and strong contributions from Bonnie Jolliffe, Brie Galvin and Grace Morton in the midcourt, tomorrow’s encounter will be a good early season test for both clubs, according to Balranald co-coach Elli-Jane Pollard.
“We go into tomorrow’s game confident after last weekend, I was impressed with our efforts against Kerang but Lake Boga will be a tougher contest I feel,” Pollard said.
“The difference between last year and the way we finished to the start of this year has been a bit of a shock in many ways, we’ve had a bit of a focus on the basics and doing them well over the pre-season and that really showed last Saturday.
“But Lake Boga will be a step up, and with them not playing last week as well they are also a bit of an unknown.
“They (Lake Boga) will be a good early season test for us with the Hepburn sisters in the attack end – they are always a very tough team to play and beat, but it’s exciting at the same time to test ourselves this early in the season against a quality side.”
Pollard and her Balranald teammates task will be slightly easier than expected, however, with one half of the Hepburn sisters – Katie – set to miss tomorrow’s match, along with Sophie Peacock. Jayda Fleming, Milla Holt and Sophie Disher are set to come into the Magpies line-up in their place.
Balranald, however, will go in with an unchanged line-up, with Harrop expecting the visitors to provide a stern test first up for last year’s benchmark side.
“Balranald have always been a team that you don’t want to underestimate, we’re going into tomorrow’s game with the expectation that it will be a tough contest,” Harrop said.
“While we will need to counter their strengths, we’ll also just focus on our game and try to implement what we’ve been working on over the off-season.
“Forced errors is a massive thing and that could be across the court, but forced errors for either team has been a big factor in the past contests between us.”
While both teams appear evenly matched on paper, the fact that Balranald have one game under their belts already could well count as an advantage, with an upset potentially on the cards if Lake Boga are even slightly off their game.
Tip – Lake Boga to win by one goal.
