Macedon 37 DEF BY Diggers 38
What a great game from Macedon. They had several players out this week and still took it to Diggers. They started with 7 B grade players on the court and played the last 3 quarters with three C graders on the court.
Macedon didn’t start very well with 8 turnovers in the first 12 minutes of the game. There was lots
of uncertainty in the leads followed by poor decision making with the passing particularly in the
centre third. There wasn’t a lot of mucking around with the ball once it was in the goal third, at
some times the urgency was to the detriment of a goal. Georgia F in GA, was solid in defence with 3
defensive recoveries and in attack, shooting 7 of Macedon’s 8 goals.
Macedon’s defensive unit gave chase but struggled to read the play and the systems that a more
experienced attack end was executing. Diggers put some quick goals on the board but we had great
circle defence and that kept Diggers from converting from all the opportunities they had. Diggers by 2 goals 10 – 8.
On came the 3 C grade players. Allira came on into GK, Janayha played C and Amy took the court in
GS. Considering this line up had never played together, all 7 players did an outstanding job.
Macedon only threw 3 bad passes in the second quarter and were very direct in the delivery of the
ball. Georgia played the GA position perfectly and did all her work inside the ring.
Macedon’s defence at times look confused to whether they were playing tight man on man or
floating back but as the quarter progressed, they tried to wear the attackers down and force an
error. Diggers goalers continued to share the shooting load but when there was an opportunity to
win ball, the girls fought it out. Macedon had a clean run early in the 2 nd and got out to a 1 goal lead but Diggers shot the last 4 goals to Macedon’s 1 and Macedon was trailing 17 – 19 heading into half time.
Georgia and Amy switched positions and G Hutch came on into WD. Our defenders were instructed
on how to shut down the main feeders and thinking about Diggers second phase pass helped the
Cats get some intercepts on the board. 5 clean intercepts, 2 gains, 3 tips and a rebound gave
Macedon the best chance to take the lead.
The 4 turnovers for Macedon was something that we have never seen before, an attacking contact, a replay, a bad pass and a fumble all from our attackers. The mid courters were doing their fair share, dominating with feeds and assists. Macedon shot 11 goals from 14 attempts and Diggers shot 9 from 11 attempts. Macedon had finally caught Diggers and it was 28 all.
The only change made in the last quarter was in the WD position, Dels came back on the court. Only 3 bad passes and very direct and accurate passes to Demi in WA. The feeds and assists were down, and this is an indication that the feeders were struggling to find the circle edge. There was nothing in the last quarter with it being a goal for goal shoot out. Macedon converted 9 from 13 attempts.
Our defence slowed down and struggled to win clean ball through an intercept. We were looking
tired and continued with man-on-man defence and forced errors from Diggers through gains rather
than cleanly won ball. The game was lost simply because Diggers had one extra shot that we had in the last quarter.
An outstanding team effort and going down by 1 goal shouldn’t be too disappointing considering Macedon were not playing with a full roster.
Votes: Taylah Chamra (very close G Fearn with the 2)
