By Tara Murray
The City West Falcons continued their hot start to the Victorian Netball League season.
After a big win in round one, the Falcons were in action against newcomers, the Gippsland Stars, on Wednesday in warm conditions.
The Stars surprised the North East Blaze in round one, drawing with them in their first ever match.
It was a much tougher test on Wednesday night with the Falcons coming away with an 84-37 win.
Falcons coach Marg Lind said while the Stars were a new team, they had a number of players who had played at this level.
“They have five players who had played VNL before,” she said. “I thought they went hard at us but we were in sync.
“We’re trying to rotate everyone, mindful it will be a long season, that is helping as they are pretty fresh.”
Every Falcons player took to the court, with no one playing a full 60 minutes.
Lind said it’s good to see those different combinations.
“Everyone came off, there wasn’t a player that stayed on,” she said. “We ran a rotating circle towards the end, gave Cookie [Jane Cook], Mon [Holmes] a rest, gave Maggie [Lind].
“Also mix up the defensive combinations. Charity [Nasalio] is new, so giving everyone a go with her, which is good.
“We hadn’t really played Lucia [Fauonuku] in the circle much last year, did quite well there.”
Lind said there would be more opportunities to throw players around and they were starting to think ahead for the next few years.
Jane Cook finished with 64 goals.
Montana Holmes returned to the side for the Falcons but Uneeq Palavi and Mel Oloamanu were still missing.
Lind said with Holmes the score rate up in the side.
The side has scored 85 and 84 in its first two matches. Only one other side has passed 70 in one and half rounds.
Lind said after playing against some men’s teams in the pre-season they weren’t sure what their scoring would be like.
“We are starting to get the flow now, I think the fresh legs are helping,” she said. “Rolling Liv [Cameron] rolling Maddie [Romis), Sussu [Lei] into the middle, Chelsea [Imanisani] in the middle.
The under-23s side also made it two from two with a 59-37 win.
.Lind said they still had a lot of growth.
“I still think they had a lot to do,” she said. “Wasn’t as happy with their game but they won by a fair bit.”
The Falcons face the Casey Demons in round three.
Lind said they wanted to keep the ball rolling with a tough run coming up.
