TOOLEYBUC-Manangatang will go into Saturday’s match against the Mallee Eagles confident of a strong showing, according to Saints coach Mel Wait.
While there is little doubt that the Eagles are now the team to beat this season following their seven-goal win over Kerang last Saturday, the Saints have also begun turning heads after winning their past four matches.
Their dominant 23-goal win over Tyntynder last Saturday only served to reaffirm how far Tooleybuc-Manangatang have come this season, with the mid-season inclusions of Zoe Morris and Emily Siely giving the Saints a stronger and more potent attacking third.
As good as they have been in defeating Cohuna, NNW United, Balranald and the Bulldogs, Saturday’s encounter with the unbeaten premiership favourites will be a massive step up, with Wait fully aware that her team will need to be at their best if they are to continue their winning streak.
“We only lost by 13-goals (against Mallee Eagles) in round one, but we had Laura Grant playing and she’s been out injured since then,” Wait told The Guardian this week.
“Obviously we have some more height in goals at the moment and we’re still trying to settle, so Saturday will be a really good test for us, especially through the middle.
“Jayda (Plant) is playing really good netball and Emily has come in and she’s been really good also, she’s still working her way into back to netball but she provides really good leadership out on the court along with Zoe and Taylah (Morris) as the three older players.
“It’ll be interesting to see how we go because we’ve had some really strong targets around not allowing teams to score heavily against us and blow the scores out recently.
“In the past when a team has gained the momentum we could give up five or six goals in a row and that’s where we’ve lost games.
“It’s been a real focus for us not to have those periods within a match and we’ve actually turned it around and we’ve been getting stints of five and six goals and that’s where we’ve been winning games ourselves.”
The combination of Morris and Summer Blachford has been one of the key factors in the Saints’ form jump, with the two tall goalies providing strong passing options for the Saints’ midcourt players to feed into the ring.
Blachford in particularly has transformed her game since the inclusion of Morris, with the former Swan Hill goal shooter now taking much of the focus away from her partner.
Despite dominating the goal ring over the past month, this Saturday will Morris and Blachford’s first big test, as they will come up against the formidable defensive pairing of Jemma Meehan and Nevaeh Roberts.
Having conceded just under 35 goals per game this season, Meehan and Roberts are the number one defensive pairing in the Central Murray, with Wait highlighting her teams attacking third of the court as being one of the key battlegrounds on Saturday.
“I’m really interested to see how it all pans out on Saturday, we’ve had a lot of changes with players which has meant we’re playing different structures and it will be interesting to see how our game style matches up against those top teams,” Wait said.
“I know Nevaeh and Jemma like to hunt and I don’t know that they’ll be able to do that as much with our taller goalie targets, particularly with Zoe in there.
“I think having a direct line to goal will be important for both teams with not too many passes.
“In saying that, I think our midcourt match ups will be something to really work on as we need to try and shut down their feeders.
“They are very fast through the centre, but I think our girls have improved a lot too in that area.”
Tip – Mallee Eagles to win by six goals.
