Macedon 26 DEF BY Rams 29
In wet and trying conditions, C grade lined up against 2nd on the ladder, Rams. Our line up changed twice during our warm up, which wasn’t ideal in our preparation. We started with a strong first quarter, turning over only a few balls. We lost possesion due to a lack of movement and miss timed leads which caused held balls. Emily, Allira and Dacey ate up lots of ball. Even though, we won plenty of ball the scoreline was even at quarter time, 6-6. In the second quarter, we injected Abbey into the game for some much needed speed. She brought intensity on the drive, composure on the feed and incredible defensive pressure. Where we struggled was the goal conversion. Nellie and Susan were unable to convert in the circle, with 7 missed goals and only 2 rebounds. This resulted in a 4 goal run for Rams. Susan started coming out of the circle which opened up the movement, however, as the timing of the drive changed we lost that option again. Eloise came on this quarter into GK and made an impact on the shooter, slowing down the ball. We went into half time down by the one goal 15-16. In the third quarter, we made changes to every third. Amy came on into GS, Georgie into C and Allira went back to GK, shifting everyone else down. Allira was exceptional at shutting down their shooter, with tips, gains, intercepts and rebounds to her name. Amy’s timing out of the circle helped open up our arracking third, but our decision making lacked severely. We turned over 5 passes in attack and 2 on the transition. Our commitment to a long ball was to our detriment, even though we had a front, ball side options each time. Most of the time, this was us ignoring a solid drive from Georgie and turning it over instead. We went into our last quarter down by a goal, 21-22. With our centre pass to start the final quarter, we knew we had to convert just one turnover to hit the lead. We had 4 recoveries before a goal was scored. 4 opportunities for us to level the score but we again were unable to execute. We began driving to where we threw the ball, creating a lot of congestion and opportunities for Rams to win ball. We made a change in WA with Steph re-entering the game after a 3 goal run to Rams, but by then they had already opened up the margin. We had 9 recoveries total in the final quarter but that was negated by our 8 turnovers. We went down by 3 goals, 26-29.
Best on was Allira with 5 rebounds, 4 intercepts, 6 tips and 3 gains.
