CITY West Falcons coach Marg Lind has described the pressure of Wednesday night’s thrilling one-goal win over VU-Western Lightning in the western derby as “worse” than last year’s nerve-jangling Victorian Netball League grand final.
The Falcons emerged victorious 36-35 in a classic that see-sawed from start to finish.
Lind showed her relief and delight at the end of an absorbing game with a big pump of the fist.
“It was pressure personified,” she said.
“Pretty much goal for goal and nobody was prepared to step back at any point.
“It was a great game, it could’ve gone either way, two tough opponents going head-to-head in a real physical contest.”
The biggest lead was five goals, enjoyed by the Falcons at quarter-time. This came courtesy of some errors made by the Lightning out of the blocks.
The Falcons repaid the favour with some errant passing early in the second, allowing Lightning back into the game.
The sides were never separated by more than three goals during the last two and a half quarters.
“We had a great start and that might have got us over the line,” Lind said.
The Falcons showed composure to close out the game.
They played a game of keepings off with a succession of passes between Clare Moylan, Christie Barnes, Chloe Watson and Maggie Lind. They wound 110 seconds off the clock by passing the ball around. The Lightning would make one last forward push in the last 10 seconds, but could not get a shot up.
“I thought that was pretty clever,’’ Lind said. “A lot of people were saying ‘get it down and score’, but they were pretty smart actually, because they wound down the clock, which denied them [Lightning] a chance.’’
Lind said the Falcons did a bit of soul searching in the lead-up to the blockbuster game. They had come off a horrible performance in a loss to North East Blaze and were desperate to bounce back with three teams hot on their heels and ready to swoop on their place in the top four.
“What we did really well after the Blaze game was rally as a group,” Lind said.
“We had a meeting, we set some new goals and I felt we were very focused going into the game. It was all hands on deck.”
The Falcons will face Monash University Central in the 12th round, while the ladder-leading Lightning squares off with North East Blaze.
