By Tara Murray
It wasn’t the City West Falcons’ most polished performance but it didn’t stop them from producing the highest score of the Victorian Netball League season so far.
The Falcons faced the Melbourne University Lightning on Wednesday night as they aimed to make it 14 in a row.
They piled on the goals on the way to a 91-48 win.
The score was the Falcons fifth score of 80 and above for the season, with no other team scoring in the 80s this season.
Falcons coach Marg Lind said she felt the change was a bit sloppy.
“They rolled a lot of players and we did too,” she said. “Sometimes that makes the momentum a bit choppy.
“We still have some improvement to do and we were a bit sloppy in some of the defensive structures.”
Lind said they had a good opportunity to run some different attacking structures that they hadn’t run for a while.
She said they were happy with how that worked and were pretty successful in doing that.
Lind said their defensive line up had been all over the place the last few weeks with illness.
Charity Nasailo was a bit sick this week and Sophie Hanrahan turned her little bit and as a precaution rested her for the rest of the match.
Lind said they played some solid defence across the court.
Lucia Fauonuku impressed and won a lot of turnover, while Maggie Lind in wing attack also created four turnovers
Jane Cook shot 81 goals for the Falcons at 100 per cent.
Lind said they were keen to see Cook shoot 1000 goals for the season again.
She currently sits at 854 for the season with four regular season matches remaining.
The Falcons now sit two games clear on top of the ladder with the Boroondara Express suffering a loss.
In the 23 and under competition, the Falcons lost to the Lightning, 60-52.
Lind said they made too many errors and the other team played well.
“They outplayed us,” she said. “We had a good last quarter but in saying that they took off a couple of players, which gave us a bit of opportunity.
“Any time we threw the ball over we just gave it straight back which you can’t do against a team of class.”
The Falcons 23s remain in sixth spot, but the gap is now just two points to seventh placed Peninsula Waves.
The Falcons face the Casey Demons this week.
Lind said they had good scoring power in the championship competition and it would be a good test for them.
She said they wanted to be better defensively this time around.
