AFTER years of finals heartbreak at the hands of Swan Hill, the Mallee Eagles will be desperate to turn the tables on the Swans when the two clubs meet at the Alan Garden Reserve tomorrow.
The Eagles will be faced with a much different Swans outfit to the one which defeated them in last year’s preliminary final, with Swan Hill undergoing wholesale changes over the off-season.
But while they may have a vastly different look on court, they still possess the same competitive instinct of years gone by, as evidenced by their five-goal win over NNW United last Saturday.
It’s a quality that wasn’t lost on Mallee Eagles co-coach Alicia Harvey this week, who despite having a strong win of their own against Tooleybuc-Manangatang last weekend, is expecting another tough clash tomorrow.
“With their experience, their junior development, we know that they’ll be strong from end to end, as always,” Harvey told The Guardian.
“As a team, we try not to worry about our opposition too much, and instead just focus on our own game and playing our own style of netball, but with that being said, I think it’ll be a pretty good hustle in our attacking end with our goalies and their defenders.
“Mollie Quinn returning is huge for them, it means that our attack and with our avenues to goal, we’ll just have to really focus on maintaining composure around the ring and using our speed and agility to our advantage.”
The Eagles are expected to go into the match with an unchanged line-up, while Swan Hill will be boosted by the return of midcourter Hayley Neuschafer, with her class and experience, along with that of Quin and Kelly Bonney, set to give their younger teammates a boost in confidence, according to Swan Hill coach Casey Frame.
“To pull off a win in our first game together was really pleasing and it was so nice to see Mollie (Quin) and Kelly (Bonney) return so well after having babies,” Frame said.
“They (Quin and Bonney) have just slotted in as if they haven’t had a year off, but along with Hayley (Neuschafer) and Karli (McIntyre), they just bring a lot of confidence to the younger girls and give them a lot of guidance.
“Ava Seymour went out on the line last weekend and we tried a lot of different things, which we will probably do for some time, just because we don’t know what our best combinations will be at this point with such a new team.
“We started with Ava (Seymour) in the ring and then realised that she might be a little bit more effective at wing attack, which she was awesome at.
“And then Jaya (Jenkins-Jaiswal) did an amazing job in defence, while the Meney girls well and truly held their own.
“I was super impressed with all of them and it’s exciting to know that we’ve got a lot of depth coming through with those young ones, and they can handle their own.”
Although the young Swans impressed against the Demons, tomorrow’s clash against the Eagles will be in another class altogether, with the girls from Lalbert widely regarded as one of, if not the, team to beat this year.
Renee Isma, Bonney and Seymour will need to be at their best opposed to the Eagles defensive unit of Nevaeh Roberts and Jemma Meehan. The Eagles are equally dangerous through the midcourt, with Lily Brennan and Kasey Torr further strengthening that key area of the court against the Saints.
While the Eagles may be the team to beat, Harvey was quick to point out that they are far from the finished product, with the visitors still having plenty to work on ahead of tomorrow’s match.
“Our full court defensive pressure is one area that we’ll be aiming to improve and also our turnovers,” Harvey said.
“We really want to switch on into attacking when we get those turnovers and work on moving that ball laterally and then straight into our goalies as well.
“Otherwise, we just need to work on our one percenters and fixing up those little errors, which will happen in every game, but as long as we can limit those then that should be a positive.”
Tip – Mallee Eagles to win by four goals.
