Macedon (56) Won Lancefield (22)
Although we were very happy with the scoreline and the 4 points, we did have targets set for this game and we just fell short. Something we need to build on next time we play Lancefield.
We didn’t start the game the way we would have hoped with 8 turnovers in the first 15 minutes of the game. All these turnovers came from bad passes and were a result of not trusting the lead that was on offer. Our familiar defence end of Katie, janelle and Hayley showed Lancefield what an experienced defence end looks like. Contesting the ball and chasing up every scrap on court gave the Cats a strong start. A huge amount of defensive work was given by all 7 players on the court, forcing 11 turnovers from a less experience Lancefield but we gave away a lot of that good work in transitioning the ball down the court through our mid court. When the ball was released the goalers shot accurately with 15 goals out of 19 attempts (3 misses were rebounded by us).
We made a change in the C and Demi came on for game 2 in A grade. There was a call from the coach to clean up our attack and minimise the bad passes. The transition passes / turnovers cleaned up but the attacking end, particularly our goalers were costly with 6 bad passes from the goal third. With the change of ends, we were heavily penalised in defence with 14 contact calls (4 in the first quarter), but this didn’t stop our defenders from fighting back and forcing Lancefield to turn over the ball. We recovered 13 balls which only attests to our uncompromising defence. We met our game plan targets by half time and the scoreline was out to 30 – 9.
Shanae Brundell made her first A grade appearance coming on into GK and the midcourt was shuffled with Hayley taking the C bib and Katie having a run in WD. We were back up to 8 turnovers coming from all but 2 players on the court and this is something that will be addressed at training this week. Our defence end had the opportunity to stay in play with very little whistle against us. Not one contact or obstruction was called against our circle defenders in this quarter. We topped our recovery count with 17 in the third with Janelle and Shanae making a meal of their goalers. Our attacking midcourt of Hayley and Chelsea took a little adjusting but once the timing was worked out they were strong hitting the circle edge and the feeds and assists were shared between all 4 attackers. Another 15 goals chalked up and we were clearly the stronger team 45 – 12.
Yet again another change was made with Chloe and Ciara switching positions and Karlee remained in WD after an injury time out in the 3rd and Katie later came on into GD. Within 30 seconds of being on the court, the rain came crashing down, putting a halt to our faster-attacking line-up. We didn’t adjust as well as what we would have liked and the leads dried up. We did reduce our turnovers to just the 4 bad passes and they were a result of throwing the ball high rather than keeping the ball low in the wet, something that we are going to have to learn to adjust too throughout the season. We won the last quarter 11- 10 which was not how we would have liked the last quarter to have gone.
SPECIAL MENTION:
Chelsea played a full 60min in WA showing that she is almost back to full capacity. Some great drive to hit the circle edge and clear decision making on the assist/ feed.
Karlee took the familiar WD bib on in the last quarter and reminded us what she likes in that position. Solid defence and strong attack only helped us move the ball into the attack with a bit more ease.
Shanae took the court for the first time as a contracted player in A grade and started with an intercept. She built her game from there with a tight man on man defence and chased up the scraps.
Best On Ground – Janelle Tate