Tara Murray
City West Falcons are eyeing finals in the Victorian Netball League at the midpoint of the season.
After a slow start in all three grades, the Falcons three teams are sitting inside the top four after every team has played each other once.
The championship division side sits second, the under-19s are top and the division 1 side is sitting third.
Falcons coach Marg Lind said they were fairly happy with where things were sitting at this part of the season.
“We’ve got a good indication where we are at,” she said. “Finals is what we’re going to be chasing.
“In hindsight, we weren’t match ready at the start of the season with COVID and a shorter pre-season.
“We don’t think we sorted ourselves out until four to five weeks in.”
Lind said the addition of Tharjini Sivalingam into the division 1 side, while Toni Lind committing to continue play also helped.
She said the development of the younger players like scholarship players and Sophie Hanrahan has also helped.
On Wednesday night, the Falcons were in action at home in Altona against Boroondara Express.
It was a clean sweep for the Falcons. Lind said it was always nice to play in front of their home crowd.
“It was really good and there was a really great vibe,” she said.
“There was a good crowd there for the under-19s and division 1, and then champ was great.
“It’s a big boost, but there’s a greater feeling of expectation playing at home.”
The championship side was without Maggie Lind, who had played the last few games, while Zoe Davies was restricted to playing a half.
It meant the Falcons looked to bring up three players, Toni Lind, Hanrahan and Nyibol Akec, from the lower grades to help out. All three got court time in the 73-55 win.
“It took a while to get away from them, but we didn’t let them get a sniff from the outset,” Lind said.
“Midway through the third we were able to get a roll on, with our fitness certainly paying off.
“Montana [Holmes] keeps running and Soli [Ropati] was really good too.”
Lind said goal shooter Jane Cook had her best game of the season in the performance.
For Lind though, the standout was Hanrahan in her first championship game. Hanrahan travels down from Shepparton twice a week to train and play with the Falcons.
“Sophie played a defender role,” she said.
“We played her in the second half against Ruby Barkmeyer, who was playing for them.
“Zoe made her work in the first half, before Sophie came on and did a really good job with Mel Oloamanu.
“It’s the first time we’ve had a look at her in champ. A lot of people were impressed by her.”
The under-19s had to come from behind to win, 49-34 without state squad member Charli Nicol for the whole game and Mikaela Minns missing for part of the game.
The division 1 team had a solid 53-47 win.
The Falcons this week face the Hawks.
