City West Falcons could not be any better prepared for a tilt at finals redemption.
The Falcons will try to avoid the same mistakes that saw them go through the Victorian Netball League undefeated last season, only to lose the one that mattered in the grand final.
They’re in a similar position this year, coming into the finals as minor premiers, though this time with one loss in the regular season.
But they have the advantage of drawing on the harrowing experience of 12 months ago – and using this to drive their campaign.
“We’re trying to finish things off really well this year,” Falcons coach Marg Lind told Star Weekly. “We’re doing a few different things compared to last year.”
The Falcons have already acclimatised to the business end of the campaign, with two finals-type encounters in the past two weeks.
They were pushed to the maximum by Geelong Cougars and North East Blaze. It is just what Lind felt her team needed in the run-up to the finals.
“I expected the last two games to be tough and it’s probably a really good preparation,” she said. “We didn’t have a lot of [selection] options and everyone seemed to step up and hold their own.”
The Falcons brought in external sources to help prepare for the finals. Jake Bridges, from Human Performance Australia, worked with the players on the mental aspects of the game.
Then a former VNL coach talked tactics, how other clubs might try to break the Falcons down.
“Other teams are going to go at us hard and a lot of clubs would like to see us go down,” Lind said. “We need to be incredibly resilient and focus on ourselves and our tasks.”
The Falcons are clear hot favourites to take out the title. The side has a remarkable attacking record this season, led by goaler Kath Knott and the attack-minded Steph Tyrell, Maggie Lind and Molly Jovic.
“We’re the only team out of all divisions to score 1000 goals for the season,” Lind said. “They’re very different players but they seem to gel nicely.”
In big finals, the defensive side of the game seems to be magnified. In the past two matches, the Falcons have conceded 50 goals in each, not the kind of number they would want to give up too often in the finals.
“That’s something we’ve discussed,” Lind said.
“One of the big focuses we’ll have in the finals is defence.
“We’ve scored lots, but we’ve conceded more than we want to as well, so we want to try and turn the ball over and capitalise more than we have been,” she said.
The Falcons will face Boroondara Express at the State Netball and Hockey Centre on Saturday for the right to move directly into the grand final.
Falcons finals preview
City West Falcons meet Boroondara Express in a semi-final at State Netball and Hockey Centre on Saturday. The winner moves through to the grand final and the loser takes a long route to the big one through preliminary finals. The head-to-head record between the sides is 2-0 to the Falcons, two really convincing wins by margins of 24 and 21 goals.
The star
Kath Knott – The Falcons have scored the most goals (1035) in the competition by a long shot, and Knott has been the cornerstone to its offence. She is the sharpest shooter in the west this season and her height and strength poses a nightmare for opposition goal keepers every week. Much of the Falcons’ training sessions centre on getting Knott into strong scoring positions, and she is not letting her teammates down.
Keys to victory
Team defence: We know the Falcons can score lots of goals but they must be able to restrict them too, just in case their attack has an off-day.
Good starts: The Falcons record of 16-1-1 will intimidate some opponents, so there’s no point letting the opposition get a sniff by giving them a head-start.
Maintain the rage: The Falcons have been the most damaging side in the VNL with more than 1000 goals, so they keep on attacking and trust they can out-shoot the opposition.
