Tara Murray
The City West Falcons will take momentum in the Victorian Netball League championship finals.
The Falcons finished the regular season on Wednesday night with a strong 74-58 win against the Boroondara Express, despite missing four players from their squad.
Falcons coach Marg Lind said she was really happy with the performance against a strong Express side.
“They had Hannah Munday, who is a Super Netball player, playing wing attack,” she said. “Ruby Barkmeyer at goal attack and Casey Adamson was also in the mid-court.
“They took it to us early with a lot of speed and strong ball movement on the circle edge.
“We were able to work that out. Our attack end really valued the ball a bit more and we were able to build.”
Lind said the most pleasing thing about that performance and the one the previous week when they were also short handed, was the spread of contributors.
She said Montana Holmes had a good game in the midcourt, while the defensive combination of Zoe Davies and Sarah Szczykulski thrived from playing a full four quarters together.
Lind was also full of praise for Sophie Hanrahan, who stepped up from division 1 for a second straight week.
“We played her out of position in wing defence,” she said. “She did reasonably well against Mundy.
“It’s a massive commitment travelling from Albury Wodonga. We’re happy to give her the opportunities.”
The Falcons had already secured second spot, irrespective of the result.
All three Falcons sides will play finals.
The Falcons division 1 team suffered a 55-53 loss and finished the regular season in third spot. Lind said after the slow start to the season, it was a massive achievement to finish in the top four.
The under-19s finished second after a 52-39 win in the final round.
“We’re pretty proud,” Lind said. “I don’t know if any other club have all teams making finals as a KPI [key performance indicator].
“Hopefully we can get the extra reward of at least a premiership or runners up.”
In championship division, the Falcons will face the Geelong Cougars for a spot in the grand final, with the loser to get a second chance.
Lind said it will be a big test.
“We’ve played poorly both times against them,” Lind said. “Jane [Cook] didn’t play the first time and only played a couple of minutes in the second game.
“Last time Uneeq [Palavi], Soli [Ropati], Lucia [Fauonuku] and Melissa [Oloamanu] came back [from overseas] poorly on the day of the game. Hopefully we don’t have a repeat this time.”
