Tara Murray
City West Falcons came away with a solid win against the Wilson Storage Southern Saints in the Victorian Netball League championship on Wednesday night.
Facing one of their bogey sides, the Falcons were able to come away with a 61-51 win while managing minutes for some players and looking at different combinations.
Falcons coach Marg Lind was pretty happy with the win.
“I thought we rotated pretty cleverly tonight,” she said. “I thought we used our bench really well and rotated at the right times.
“The Saints are always a bit of a nemesis for us.
“They’re very physical, you know they’re there and they catch the body a lot. So I think 10 goals is a pretty good result. I’m pretty happy with that actually.”
Lind said captain Maggie Lind was still sore in her calf which limited her the week before so they didn’t want to overuse her and rotated her and Chelsea Imanisani for most of the night.
The Falcons bought in Olivia Cameron, who played in their division 1 side last year, as some cover in the goaling circle.
Uneeq Palavi was only restricted to a half by the Melbourne Mavericks, where she is a training partner.
“I think using Genna [Ogier] and Olivia Cameron worked well too. Uneeq was only allowed the two quarters and Cookie [Jane Cook] wasn’t actually feeling well, I think she stood up well.”
“We know Olivia is experienced and handy and we thought moving forward if we miss any of our Tongans or Samoans, which we potentially could for Pacific Games, she would be really good cover.
“She fits in well. The first moment we didn’t use her well when we bought her on the second time, she was impactful moving forward.”
Lind said it was defender Sophie Hanrahan was the standout on the night, getting them out of jail on several occasions.
She liked the move of Soli Ropati late in the game to wing attack, while Sussu Liai worked well in wing defence later on.
Cook finished with 42 goals for the Falcons.
The win keeps them second on the ladder.
The under-23s made it two in a row, beating the Saints, 50-46.
Lind said they had a good performance but needed to look at their rolling subs and being a bit more considered with changes.
“I think once Holly Adams-Alcock just settled down and took the front hold that made a big difference,
Still a little bit wasteful there, they are still young. I thought Maddison Mckiernan was good and lead the time pretty well and Mikayla [Minns] had some good patches too.
“I think when Molly Kennedy gets more involved in the long court, we are better.”
The match was the first time Minns has played big court minutes having been sick since returning from under-19 nationals.
She’s trained just once since.
The Falcons sit third on the ladder.
The championship side has a bye next week, while the under-23s face the Gippsland Strikers.
Lind said it was good chance for the championship side to freshen up.
