Round 3: Cats V Rupo - A Grade

Unpacking the game
The first quarter killed us! We started with the first 2 goals but they smashed out 7 in a row after that and then they took another 5. It was 13 to 4 at one stage in this quarter. What affected us the most was the amount of mistakes coming from our attack end. Chloe and Chelsea turned over the ball 4 times each, giving Rupo 8 more chances to score. The team did put in a big effort to recover our mistakes with 9 recoveries but the damage was done. We desperately needed a ‘time out’ call after their first big run.

Our second quarter wasn’t much cleaner with turnovers. We were struggle to find a path and continuing to make poor decisions. The ball did hit circle edge a bit easier than the first quarter but it was the work in and around the ring that wasn’t so crisp. Whole court defence stepped up and Katie stacked up the numbers with 5 recoveries. This lessened the margin and got us back in the game.

The third quarter was still messy in our attack with our centre to GS throwing away 2 balls each. They did have strong defenders forcing us to make errors but we needed to be a bit more careful with the ball. We had a solid start with 3 in a row and this forced Rupo to make a change. We kept up the defensive pressure stopping Rupo taking a bigger lead. We had them at one point at 26- 27.

What an outstanding last quarter with just the one turnover (but was it?). Rupo reverted to their star studded line up in the last quarter which put us under pressure, but not only did we step up but we took control, not giving away any easy balls in our attack.

Our recoveries were at their lowest for the game with just 6 and our attacking end didn’t contribute to any recoveries. They played the ball with experience and worked it again and again until they found a path to the experienced goaler, we slowed them down but eventually they broke through. Their goalers missed an uncharacteristic 4 goals and they rebounded 3 back. The small windows we had defensively, we missed.

Up the other end we took a few too many shots at goal without protecting the rebound. 5 missed shots in the last quarter being the most goals we missed for the game. Small errors that counted.

Targets

We were unsuccessful in achieving all our targets this week and we lost. 7 more turnovers than expected. 1 less recovery (today this was the draw or win), not enough rebounds and goaling accuracy was down. All indicators of the loss.

Positives to be taken from the game:

1. We showed real GRIT
2. Our ‘team’ can do it every time
3. We never lost our cool and we stayed united for the full hour.

Area for improvement:

1. Our first quarter is killing us.
2. Attackers are turning over too many balls.
3. Staying defensively consistent and making sure that we have the rebound up both ends.

 
Goaling Breakdown

VOTES: 3 Karlee 2 Chelsea 1 Janelle