Tara Murray
The City West Falcons came out on top at home against Geelong Cougars in front of a big crowd in the Victorian Netball League championship.
In one of their home matches at Altona Sports Centre, the Falcons slowly built into the match before coming away with a 62-47 win on Wednesday night.
Falcons coach Marg Lind said it wasn’t their best performance but they were able to come away with the points.
“It took a while to get there,” she said. “They are a good outfit and they have a rotating circle and are hard to defence.”
Lind said they didn’t make the most of their opportunities with the ball and had several turnovers that they normally wouldn’t have.
She said they tried to find the right combinations again and it took some time.
“We’re still trying to find the right mix,” she said. “It was a bit better with using Genevieve [Ogier] off the bench and giving Uneeq [Palavi] a bit of a break
“We didn’t help Jane at all and we put her under a lot of pressure and we were running an extra ball to get her at a better angle.”
With the connection to Cook not working, Shimona Jok had her best game for the Falcons.
She shot 37 goals in 41 minutes on court, not missing a shot.
Lind said with Jok having a bit more agility than Cook it seemed to work better.
It’s been a big week for Jok, who was on Thursday officially named as the Melbourne Mavericks 11th player for the Suncorp Super Netball season. She could get called up any time during the season to be part of the Mavericks match day squad.
Lind said it was something that Jok had been aiming for.
Overall, Lind said it was a team effort on Wednesday night with no standouts.
“We had to grind it out a bit,” she said. “ We were our own worst enemy at times though.”
After six rounds, the Falcons sit in third sport, with four wins and a loss.
The Falcons under-23 side also had a good win, beating the Cougars, 53-42.
“They played really well,” Lind said. “It was an interesting game with both sides having three players at nationals.
“Our development girls int he under-19s having been playing in the super series and they were ready to go .
“All three come in and got a run, which is good for our pathway,”
The Falcons next week face the Peninsula Waves on Wednesday night.
The Waves championship side is the only one in championship division without a win,
“They are still shooting about 50 goals a game,” she said. “It’s a good opportunity to run a different line and run some players that we need to get time into.
“We don’t underestimate any of them.”
