Tara Murray
City West Falcons built into a strong performance against the Melbourne University Lightning to continue its winning streak in the Victorian Netball League championship.
The Lightning started the better of the two teams before the Falcons found their groove, with the scores level at 14-all at quarter time.
The second and third quarters were all the Falcons as they opened up a match winning lead.
The Falcons rotated their players in the final quarter but still managed to extend the lead slightly to win, 67-50.
Falcons coach Marg Lind was pretty happy after the game.
“I just thought we took a little while to work at a defensive circle and be a little bit more patient in attack,” she said.
“We were trying to launch it into Jane [Cook] really early on. I think against a team like MU, they’ve got Maggie Carris, who is almost as big as Jane, you really need to work to the circle once we did that we started to fly.”
Lind said the decision to bring Mel Oloamanu on the court early in the first quarter was a good move as she bought a bit more physicality and size.
She thought Lucia Faionuku had a good game in wing defence with a bit more height while Sophie Hanarahan looked a lot better in goal defence.
Lind said once they minimalised their errors in attack and Uneeq Palavi became more of a shooting option they started to look a lot better
The margin meant Lind had the chance to throw different players on the court. The Falcons were without Shimona Jok due to Mavericks commitments.
“I think that’s still really important,” Lind said. Genna [Ogier] is still finding her way. When she first came on in that third she was really good, but then she went back to some basketball habits in the last.
“She’s making improvements and Chelsea [Imanisani] was steady. Just try to get us some time and get a bit more experience with that group. We probably need to put her on with Pav and Cookie too, not just always rolling a big number at once.”
The Falcons now move to 6-1 with the loss coming in the first match of the season.
The Falcons under-23s had a much tougher night, losing to the Lightning 52-48 after being 11 goals down at half time and having taken the lead early in the last quarter.
Lind said that side remains a work in progress.
They made 18 errors in the first half, that is not acceptable,” she said. “They made two errors in the third quarter and pulled back an 11 goal deficit to equal it at three quarter time.
“Then to have opportunities in the last to go ahead and again, waste it but then by that point they were a little fatigued I think. You can’t run down 11 goals and not have some sort of consequence.”
The Falcons face Casey on Wednesday night.
