City West Falcons kept their unbeaten Victorian Netball League season intact with a three-goal win against Hawks Netball on Wednesday June 4.
The Falcons led by seven goals at half-time, but the Hawks struck back to level scores going into the final term.
“The third quarter, very terrible, we just went off the pace, stopped leading,” Falcons coach Marg Lind said.
“Our asset is our ability to move the ball quick and I thought we didn’t do that in the third and they gave them a stiff and got them back in.”
The Falcons went on an unanswered four-goal streak early in the last through goal shooter Jane Cook.
But the Hawks struck back with six of their own to tie the game at 53 apiece with eight minutes remaining.
Cook and Madelyn Gray then put the margin back out to five with a string of goals and City West hung on despite a late Hawks’ surge to win 65 to 63.
“They (Hawks) are goers and they’ve got big reach and they’re big bodies and I think it was what we needed was to really put the foot down,” Lind said.
“The connection between Mon (Montana Holmes) and Maggie (Lind) in that first five minutes of the last made a big difference. Just getting the pace up and using your experience under pressure.
“And I thought Cooky held up well in the last. She was probably sitting a bit too deep in the first three quarters, which meant they had a bit of a contest on the ball and in saying that we also threw some bad ball to her as well.
Lind said the team had been affected by the flu during the week.
“We’ve had quite a few with the flu in the club, me included, but by not changing in the last probably helped to settle a bit. But we got there – it was ugly.”
The Falcons’ Under 23s improved from their first meeting with the Hawks to go down by eight goals, a nine-goal better performance, including getting to within one goal late in the third.
“It’s a big improvement,” Lind said.
“It probably shouldn’t have blown out to eight in the end, it probably should have been two or three. But they’re getting there. They’ve definitely made some improvements.
“Obviously they’ve got a tough run home so they’re just going to have to keep their foot down on the pedal.”
