City West Falcons coach Marg Lind insists “it’s never easy” – a statement that may appear to be at odds with her side’s ongoing achievements.
The new-look Falcons are in slight rebuild mode in the Victorian Netball League championship, but are continuing in the same dominant vein as last campaign when they went through the regular season undefeated.
After six rounds, the Falcons share top spot with Boroondara Genesis with five wins and a draw.
The scary thing for the rest of the competition is that the Falcons have done it without a single minute of action from their Vixens-aligned stars, Chloe Watson and Emily Mannix.
“We haven’t had them available yet – so we’re only running seven or eight players,” Lind said.
She said it was “really pleasing” the Falcons had been able to get through that many games with good results.
“It’s a good sign that we’re pretty fit, particularly when we’re carrying such low stocks.”
Even the deepest rosters and the best-conditioned teams could be excused for feeling the pinch after such a heavy schedule early in the season.
The Falcons’ commanding 58-49 win over Geelong Cougars on Wednesday night was their sixth game in 18 days.
In a compressed season brought about by the World Cup, to be held in Sydney in August, Lind wants to avoid burn-out, so gave her players a week’s rest from training activities ahead of tonight’s clash with Yarra Valley Grammar Ariels.
“We’re taking the horse racing philosophy and putting the horses out to paddock,” Lind said.
“We make a big mistake with athletes these days, thinking they can go all year round in a daily training environment … you’ve got to learn lessons from other sports, and I think horse racing’s not one we look at much.
“You’ve got to rest your athletes and I think they appreciate it.
“If we flog them, they’re going to run out of steam when it counts and I don’t want that to happen.”
Kath Knott has been crucial to the Falcons impressive run.
The goal shooter is once again proving one of the more efficient players in the attacking circle and is creating a winning dynamic with new goal attack Steph Tyrell, who gets better with every minute spent in the partnership.
Knott’s interplay with wing attack Maggie Lind was a feature in the win over the Cougars.
“Our attack end was really good,” Lind said. “That’s probably the best connection they’ve had all year.”
At the other end, tall defenders Peta Fay and Demi Woodlock responded to the challenge thrown down by Geelong, which deployed two small goalers to catch them off guard.
“We had to adjust and it took us a little while,” Lind said.
“In the last quarter, we moved Demi on wing defence to add a bit of height and stop it coming in as fast, and that seemed to do the job.
“There weren’t a lot of rebound opportunities but the ones that did come available, Peta took, which was great.”
Lance Jenkinson
