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 an instant classic that seesawed 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 re-paid the favour with some errant passing early in the second, allowing the Lightning back in the game.
The sides were never separated by more than three goals over 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 taking 110 seconds off.
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 revealed the Falcons did a bit of soul searching in the lead-up to the blockbuster game.
The Falcons came 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.’’
