Tara Murray
City West Falcons continue to try things as they prepare for Victorian Netball League championship finals.
Having already secured top spot, the Falcons don’t have much to play for in the final three rounds.
The first of those rounds was on Wednesday night, with the Falcons beating Melbourne University Lightning, 65-52.
Falcons coach Marg Lind was reasonably happy with the win.
“It was a good start to the game again,” she said. “We set it up.
“We threw things around with a few defensive combinations. We had a lapse after half time.
“We took our foot off the accelerator. Melbourne University got it back within six before we got it back out to 10.”
Lind said they were really liking how they’re starting games so feel and are really hitting circle edge and feeding Jane Cook well.
She said that would look at the periods where they drop concentration
“We get a bit complacent,” she said. “There’s a fine line between pushing them too hard now and then we run out of steam come finals.
“We want to keep everyone rolling on and keeping everyone injury free. We still have Lucia [Fauonuku] to get back onto the court and Uneeq [Palavi] will be back as well.”
Cook finished with 55 goals to lead the way in attack for the Falcons.
Lind said Maggie Lind and Montana Holmes both played well in attack, while Sussu Liai had a really strong game in defence having struggled against the Lightning the first time they played.
One change the Falcons did make was playing Mel Oloamanu playing some time out in wing defence.
“It gives us more options defensively,” she said. “She played WD for Samoa and we thought we would have a look at it.
“She was excited to play there and got a few intercepts.
“We have Mel, Sussu and Sophie [Hanrahan] are all playing well. We might need to throw Soli [Ropati] into centre, so that gives us four agile defenders who can play in the circle and at wing defence.”
The Falcons under-23 team suffered a 63-52 loss.
Lind said they had some really good moments but couldn’t put it together for three quarters.
“They did well for three quarters,” she said. “We led at half time and it was even at three quarter time.
“We went back to the bad mistakes that we’ve been making. There is some progress there.”
The Falcons remain in fourth spot, two games clear of the Geelong Cougars in fifth.
The Falcons need to win one of their last two games to make finals. If they lose both, it could come down to percentage.
The Falcons this week host the Western Warriors at the Altona Sports Centre.
Lind said they were hoping to have a big crowd for their final home game of the season.
They will have a couple of school holiday clinics earlier in the week, as well as an exhibition game on Wednesday before the VNL games, starting at 6pm.
