THE Mallee Eagles will head into the remainder of the home-and-away season as the team to beat following their seven-goal win over Kerang on the weekend.
After trailing by four goals at half time, the Eagles turned it on in the second half, blitzing the Blues 30 goals to 19 after the main break to run away 50-43 winners.
It was a win set up by a strong defensive effort in the second half according to Mallee Eagles co-coach Alicia Harvey who was delighted to stretch her team’s winning streak to 10.
“They (Kerang) played some beautiful netball, particularly in the first half, where I think we lost our control and composure,” Harvey said.
“After half time is when we really levelled up a gear, no one dropped their heads even when we were down by eight goals in the second quarter and Jess (Jobling) and I are so proud of the girls for standing up when we needed to, rather than just folding.
“The second half was when we starting playing our netball with confidence, composure and control.
“There were so many momentum swings and even when we were up in the last quarter, we were never fully comfortable with whatever lead we had as we know how well Kerang excel at transition and gains, but we all put in 110 per cent individually which gave us the team success in the end.”
Mallee Eagles defender Jemma Meehan was huge in the final quarter with seven individual intercepts almost proving to be the difference.
Harvey was another solid contributor through the midcourt for the ladder leaders, while Megan Thorneycroft led the way with 33 goals.
Although disappointed to not have the final result go their way, there were still plenty of positives for the Blues to take away from the match according to Kerang co-coach Chloe Adams after the match.
“We’re obviously disappointed to not get the win, but I honestly couldn’t be prouder of the girls,” Adams said.
“It was such a fantastic game and I think it was incredibly highly quality netball from both sides with so many momentum swings.
“All of our girls played their role and I thought our youngsters in particular really stood up against the Mallee girls who are all super experienced, which was great to see.
“We had a fantastic first half, but Mallee, being the quality side they are, clawed our lead back and it was anyone’s game there for a while.
“Unfortunately we had a bit of a lapse in concentration in the last quarter and they capitalised a lot better than us which I think was the difference in the end.
“I think there’s such a thing as good losses and that was one for us as we’ll take a lot away and learn a lot from it.”
Denise Roberts (30 goals) was influential for the Blues in the goal circle with her accurate shooting as well as aggressive rebounding a feature of her game.
Bree Cordina was another sold contributor for Kerang in the centre in her head-to-head battle against Lily Brennan.
“It was such a high standard of netball from both sides and the intensity was through the roof all the way to the final whistle,” Harvey said.
“Kerang are an absolutely stellar side; they have height in both bookends, accurate goalies, physicality in the ring and a speedy midcourt.
“Credit to them, they made it very hard for us to penetrate their full court pressure and well-drilled attacking end.”
