Macedon 60 Won 16 Melton Central 31
A game of two halves.
The first quarter we started with a different attacking line up to previous weeks. While we didn’t struggle to move the ball in our goal third, how we read movement and delivered the ball seemed take some time to adjust too. Our main feeders in C and WA struggled to read the goalers and turned over the ball 5 times, however the volume for feeds and assists were reasonably high. When the ball did hit our circle edge, the goalers just couldn’t find the ring. Chloe uncharacteristically shooting at 50% and Alex at 63%. A change clearly needed to be made by the second half in this end.
The mid court defenders put good pressure on the ball carrier and both recovered 3 balls. Our circle defenders were a little slow to get moving and the ball moving through the goal ring was not being held up. Melton capitalised on the long stretch of their goalers and in our defensive circle we recovered 2 rebounds and 2 gain. Melton shot very accurately only missing 2 shots. They shot the last 3 goals and then another 6 goals to end the quarter and we were 11 all.
We switched it back to a familiar line up with Chelsea taking the WA bib and Ciara back into GA. It had an instant impact shooting 5 goals to Melton’s 1. What followed was ball won in defence but 2 defensive bad passes and Melton were back in the contest shooting 3 and then another 2. Our centre passes became more obvious and with some great feeds from Hayley and accurate goaling, we went on to shoot 6 goals in a row.
Our defence remained consistent and with a change in strategy to try and combat the taller GS we managed 6 gains, 3 intercepts and rebounded the only missed shot for the quarter. Melton’s goalers were being fed predominately by their C and they were shooting accurately, so the score line heading into half time was too close for our liking and this was something we would address in the second half. 26 – 21.
Another change up to our line-up, with a focus on our mid court. Alex played WA, Chelsea took the C position and Hayley moved back into WD. Still too many turnovers in our attack end with 2 coach killers and 3 bad passes but considering the amount of ball the girls were handling this was not too concerning. Feeds and assists were too hard for Melton’s defenders to predict as they came from all 4 attacking players. Service to the goalers was good and accuracy was above 88%, so the job was being done in our attack end.
Defenders put their foot down and started to recover balls through clean intercepts. We had 8 intercepts in 15 minutes of play which was a great stat compared to the 5 in total for the whole first half. Gains were good from all thirds, showing whole court defence and we rebounded 1 of their 2 missed goals. Melton was deprived of opportunity to score and only shot 7 of their 9 attempts. Our goaling run was impressive – 2 goals, 3 goals, a single goal, another single goal, 3 goals and a 9-goal run. This gave us a significant lead heading into the last quarter 45 -28.
We finished with an impressive last quarter. 5 turnovers from our feeding players but a significant amount of ball delivered to our goalers. Accurate shooting again and the attack end finished the quarter with a job well done.
Defenders remained smart and played one on one when it was needed and off the body when the time was right. Hayley finished the quarter with 1 tip, 1 gain and 2 intercepts. Janelle had 3 tips, a rebound and 4 intercepts. Katie had 1 tip, 2 gains and an intercept, while Shanae took the court for the last 7 minutes and had a gain and a rebound. A solid finish shooting 15 goals to Melton’s 3.
