City West Falcons coach Marg Lind was left pleasantly surprised by her side’s opening round win against the Western Warriors in the Victorian Netball League.
The Falcons haven’t been the best starters in recent seasons, having not won the past three seasons in round one before going on to win the championship.
On Wednesday night, they made a winning start against the Warriors despite missing four players from their squad.
It was a dominant performance with the Falcons winning, 85-41.
“I’m pretty happy,” Lind said. “It was a nice win and a little bit surprising as we were pretty low on numbers with no Soli [Ropati], Mel [Oloamanu], Uneeq [Palavi] and Montana [Holmes].
“We couldn’t cover them all.”
In a blow for the Falcons, Ropati will miss the season after tearing her ACL and fracturing her leg at the Pacific Games.
Oloamanu is being managed following the games, while Holmes and Palavi were both out with Super Netball commitments.
The Falcons led by seven at the first break and the margin blew out to 20 at half time.
The Falcons continued to put the foot down in the second half to run away with a big win.
Lind said they had a strong game across the court.
“I thought we had a good attack end and were a bit more organised,” she said. “Charity [Nasalio], Sophie [Hanrahan], Lucia [Fauonuku] and Sussu [Liai] were solid defensively and put the pressure on the Warriors.”
Jane Cook finished with 76 goals for the Falcons.
Maddie Romios made a successful return after having her first child, playing half a game at goal attack, rotating with Olivia Cameron.
Lind said Nasalio looked good on debut for the Falcons and said the decision to take an extra defender into the season was now crucial with Ropati out.
The other debutant for the Falcons was Ella Leith.
Leith is an under-19s player with the Falcons.
“We didn’t want to take anyone out of the under-23s, they need to get that game time together,” Lind said.
“Ella played 11 and unders at Altona and I really like her.
“I’m not going to lie, it was a risk with her being so young and it shocked everyone. She did a pretty good job and gave us fresh legs.”
Lind said they had a number of under-19s run through with them in the off season and they would look at giving opportunities throughout the season.
The under-23s also started the season with a win, beating the Warriors, 54-39.
Lind said they showed some really good signs early.
“The scoring rate was better than last year,” she said. “The mid court additions were good and there’s a lot of growth to come.
“It was a good scoreline, they beat us last time.”
The Falcons face the Gippsland Stars next week.
