Macedon 65 Won 44 Western Rams
Last week we managed to get a win over Woodend and we knew that Rams were not going to be a walk in the park. We started the game with a different starting 7 combination and this took our attack end a little time to adjust too. We turned over an uncharacteristic 9 balls with under thrown passes and misreading leads. Almost all our assists in the goal third came through Ciara in GA and a shared count of feeds through Alex and Karlee. Chloe shot very accurately converting 12 from 14 attempts making it extremely hard for the Rams get win any ball in our goal circle.
Our whole court defensive pressure was uncompromising, almost every player recovered a ball. Collectively we had 9 intercepts, 3 gains, 9 deflections and a rebound. We only had a 3 goal lead heading into the second quarter but it should have been 9 goals but we didn’t value our possession.
The starting line up changed in the mid court. Chelsea took the court in WA, Hayley moved up the court into C and Alex shifted back into WD. This was a more familiar line up and it was time to put the foot down. We cleaned up our attacking play with 4 bad passes and a fumble and the result of that work meant more goals on the board. Our feeds and assist started to come through our mid courters and not our GA. Our ball speed was outstanding and this meant quick passes into the goals. We shot 18 goals from 21 attempts and Chloe rebounded 2 of the 3 missed goals.
Our defence remained solid but our recoveries changed from intercepts to gains. Playing off line defence and man on man meant that Rams coughed up the ball due to our intense pressure. We had 6 gains from every player but our GS, 4 intercepts, all through our circle defenders and 4 tips. We were penalised in our keeper position for contacts but our 3 feet distance was outstanding with just 1 obstruction being called in 15 minutes of play. Solid defence, good service to our goalers and accurate shooting put the Cats in a strong position heading into half time 31 – 20
In the third quarter Shanae came on into GK and Karlee played C. Rams were slowly tiring and we lifted our work rate. We only threw 1 turnover in the third quarter, showing our patience and accurate passing. Feeds were dominated by Chelsea in WA and the assists again came form all 3 feeders. This made us very unpredictable and their sag style of defence became ineffective. Another 17 goals on the board for the Cats with only 1 miss.
Rams were not letting go of this game and kept in the game with very accurate goaling and some solid feeding. All 4 attackers became feeders of the ball and this made it a bit of a challenge, working out who their main feeder was. We were finding it more challenging winning ball back and our clean recoveries were at the lowest for the game. Janelle was the only source that was cleanly winning us ball in defence. We had 8 deflections from our C down to our Keeper but it wasn’t outing ball in hand for us. Rams shot very accurately with 2 tall goalers shooting 13 goals at 100%. We pushed out the lead by 14 but it still didn’t feel comfortable for the Cats.
We wanted to make our mark on the game in the last quarter with a solid finish, while still working out the versatility and depth in our team. Our junior Eliza moved into GA, Ciara moved across to WA, Chelsea took the Centre bib for the first time this season and Alex stayed in WD until Hayley came back on to finish the game. We turned over 6 balls but it was mainly through our WD and C, this was a result of another change in the line-up and players making steady smart choice with their lead and pass. Chelsea and Ciara combined well to share the feeds and assist into our goaler and Chloe and Eliza took a solid hold in our ring waiting on a good delivery into their hands. Chloe stood up to the challenge shooting 10 from 10 at 100% and Eliza put up 11 shots and converted 7. All 4 missed shot were rebounded by our tall goalers and a solid attacking finish with 17 goals added to the score board.
Katie came back on into GK, as not enough ball was won by our back line in the 3rd quarter. A solid but familiar partnership with Katie receiving 2 intercepts, 2 gains, 1 rebound and 2 deflections and Janelle maintained her relentless defence with 2 gains, 1 deflection, 1 intercept and a rebound. Our WD (Alex) was kept quiet in the last quarter with no recoveries, so a quick change with Hayley coming on brought us no more ball. Rams finally started missing shots shooting 10 from 15 attempts. We chipped away at extending our lead and the reward came with the final score line of 65 – 44.
