Macedon 35 Won 32 Woodend-Hesket
The top of the table fights it out, in what finished in a very tight score line.
We found the first quarter particularly challenging with the sun shining brightly in our eyes. Even though we couldn’t see a team mate we still chose to throw the ball high and long to a pocket. Woodend defenders were sitting there waiting for an easy pick off and we obliged. All 7 turnovers were a result of holding onto the ball too long and/or throwing to a stationary player in the pocket. Chelsea in WA serviced the goaler well and accurately goaling followed. They shot 9 from 10 attempts, rebounding the only missed goal.
Our defensive team pressure was strong and this put Woodend under a lot of pressure. We played hard with one on one pressure and this drew a decent amount of whistle, although we had a player standing out of play, it didn’t come at a cost. Janelle was solid in GD with 3 deflections, 2 gains, 1 intercept and 2 rebounds, she also kept the GA to 33%. Katie in GK had 2 deflections, 1 gain and 3 rebounds. Her goaler was also kept to 29%. A solid team effort and we had a comfortable lead 9 -4.
In the second quarter, we adjusted our attack to try and stop Woodend from floating for an easy intercept but we had the occasional brain fade and threw right into their hands. Our mid court panicked at times and this forced a bad pass. When we regrouped, the feeds were shared between our GS, GA and WA but Hayley in C dominated clearing over 10 feeds. Our goalers accuracy swayed and 4 goals were cleared by Woodend’s defenders. We shot 8 from 12 attempts.
Woodend’s GS change started to have an affect on their ability to convert. The ball was moving faster down court and with our 6 bad passes, Woodend was building momentum. We stayed in play and there wasn’t much whistle in the 2nd quarter. Hayley was solid in defence with 1 deflection, 1 gain, 1 intercept and a rebound. Great stats for a centre court player. Our back-line defence remained solid with a shared 2 rebounds, 1 intercept, 3 gains and 2 deflections. We lost the 2nd quarter 11 – 8. We held our lead 17 -12.
We started the 3rd with a goaler switch and Hayley in the centre. This move was highly ineffective. We struggled to penetrated the middle third and were very costly with our possession. We threw 2 bad passes, had a replay, fumbled 2 balls and had 2 held balls- a disaster. Centre passes became a bit tricky and our feeds and assists were uncharacteristic. The ball didn’t come in our ring with our starting line-up, so changes had to be made. With this we shot an immediate 4 goals and went on shoot another 3 in a row. We managed to regroup and scored 11 goals.
We remained tight in defence, spoiling 5 passes in their attack and this slowed up Woodend’s fast WA. We were struggling with timing and getting clean hands to ball. Katie in the back line worked over Woodend’s young goaler and recovered 5 balls and deflected 2. Woodend’s goalers were serviced well by their WA and shot 9 from 12 attempts. Both attacking ends serviced their goalers 12 times. We were still in the lead 28 – 24 heading into the last quarter.
We maintained our average turnovers with another 6 to add to the increasing count. We were making hard work of this game and made some poor decisions at critical times. Janelle and Hayley had to come down into our attack and help the attackers find a path into the goal ring. We re set several times and gradually moved the ball safely into our goalers. They shot 7 from 9 goals. Woodend kept us to our lowest quarter.
We went quiet in defence being penalised in defence for 9 contacts. Woodend’s quick ball movement in and around their circle edge made it very hard for our defenders to keep up with the pace of play. Inaccurate goaling from Woodend’s goalers (8 from 15 attempts) and Katies solid 3 rebounds, stopped Woodend from stealing the 4 points from us. We won 35 -32.
