Macedon 42 DEF Rams 39
With Alex, Janelle, Ciara and Hetty out this week, Bella, Ash, Shanae and B grade captain Georgia Fearn got the call up. Macedon got off to a strong start going toe to toe with the Rams. Although the goaling was not overly accurate in the first quarter, the volume of ball coming into the goal third was high. When attacking, the team was not overly careful with the ball and 7 bad passes were thrown, but thankfully the team defence was strong, and 10 balls were won back. A great start for Macedon and they were up 10 -5 heading into the second quarter.
In the second quarter six players kept their position on court and Chelsea joined them coming on into WA. On centre passes Macedon had to use all 4 options to clear the ball and showed patience in penetrating the transverse line. 5 bad passes and a break at critical time meant that Macedon couldn’t get a healthy lead on Rams and they remained in the hunt. Macedon’s defensive end were tight and had to work hard for every ball they got their hand too. Whole court defensive pressure was not there today and all 9 recoveries for the Cats came from Hayley in WD, Bella in GD and Katie in GK. Macedon has done enough to keep the lead and they went into the second half up by 4. 22 – 18 Macedon’s way.
Georgia Fearn was given a well earnt break and Ash Coxhell came back on the court in GS. Karlee stayed on in C but after a couple of minutes Bronte replaced Karlee with fresh legs. Ashlea took the court into GD, which is a less familiar position for her. The circle defence did an amazing job recovering 8 balls between them. All this work was hard fought as the tall, strong GS was good at ground level and aerially. Goaling was great but Macedon were losing a lot of ball with poor decision making and forced passes. The Cats threw away 10 bad passes and this gave Rams a chance to bounce and bring the score back to 1. Macedon held their lead 33-32. The Cats made a brave move with three B grade players taking the court in GD, WA and GS. The experienced A grade Macedon players on court stood up in the last 15 minutes of the game and nursed their teammates through a high-pressure quarter. The goalers were serviced less this quarter and only converted 8 goals but with 8 bad passes, this wasn’t so bad. Our defenders attracted a lot of whistle this quarter, but that man-on-man pressure also meant that Rams were being forced to throw passes under pressure. Hayley cleanly won 6 balls back for the Cats and Katie won 5 balls. Amazing effort under a lot of pressure. With a 6-goal run at the start of the 4th quarter this was enough to seal the deal and take the 4 points.
Congratulations to Georgia Fearn, Ashlee Coxhell and Bella Klaaysen for an amazing game against Rams and to the A graders Chelsea Kemp, Hayley Birch, Chloe Williams, Katie Clarke, Bronte Green and Karlee Bruno for steering the ship
VOTES: Katie Clarke
5 intercepts, 3 rebounds, 6 gains, 9 tips
