Tara Murray
A pregame rev up made sure the City West Falcons were switched on for their home clash against the Western Warriors in the Victorian Netball League championship.
The Falcons under-23s were disappointing in the first game on Wednesday night and Falcons coach Marg Lind said she wanted to make sure the championship side was switched on to make sure they didn’t suffer the same fate.
They started well and were able to build a solid performance on the way to an 82-56 win.
Lind was pretty pleased with the performance.
“I ripped into them after the under-23s performance,” she said. “They let them get out to a 10 goal lead and I said look they have come to plan and we don’t want to lose our momentum.
“We played pretty well. They threw everything at us. We’ve done some good work on footwork and it paid off.
“Juls [Julia Woolley] and Kim [Borger] have quick feet.”
Lind said their attacking end put out a really strong performance and made few errors across the night, especially in the first half.
They rotated the defensive combinations as well.
“Sussu’s [Liai] footwork had been really good,” Lind said. “We played her with Mel [Oloamanu] and Sophie with Mel and Sophie [Hanrahan] and Sussu,
“They all offered different aspects and played really well.”
Lucia Fauonuku played enough minutes to qualify her for finals, while Oliva Cameron has also played enough quarters to qualify after coming in as a replacement player.
Lind said they were also hopeful of having star shooter Uneeq Palavi back from Suncorp Super Netball competition for the final round of the season.
While things are coming together for the championship side, it’s an easy equation for the under-23s.
They need to win in the final round or likely miss out on playing finals.
On Wednesday night, they lost 54-51 to the Warriors.
Lind said it was a really disappointing performance from the group and they weren’t mentally switched on.
The Falcons face the Casey Demons in the final round on Wednesday.
For the championship side, they already know they will face the Boroondara Express in the first week of finals with a grand final spot on the line.
The under-23s need to beat the Demons, or if they lose, they need bottom side Gippsland Stars to beat the Peninsula Waves, who sit two points behind them.
Lind said with the championship side they wanted to get through the final round unscathed.
“We need to make sure we keep our eyes on everything and not get ahead of ourselves,” she said.
“Casey will be tough and always a nemesis for us.”
