By MICHAEL ESPOSITO
CITY West Falcons bounced back from a surprise loss to Western Lightning to run oer the previously undefeated North East Blaze in round four of the Victorian Netball League last Wednesday night.
The Falcons defeated Blaze 62-44 with goal shooter Kathleen Knott scoring 44 goals at an impressive 88 per cent accuracy rate.
“We were very ordinary the week before right across the board so I think it was important that we had a solid win and got a win on the board because otherwise those early wins probably weren’t going to be effective later on,” Falcons coach Marg Lind said.
“We weren’t accountable the week before, the players didn’t come in with an intense attitude, which you need to have consistently week by week.”
The combination of Knott and goal attack Maggie Lind, which has worked well this year, troubled Blaze’s defence.
“They actually ran three different defenders on both our goalers across the game so they obviously were struggling to combat our attack end.
“They also rotated their goalers as well so I think we did alright at both ends.”
Midcourter Christie Barnes, who mainly played centre in the Falcons’ premiership winning 2010 season, played all four quarters in wing attack on Wednesday, in her first full game since the 2010 grand final after being sidelined last year with injury.
“She wasn’t ready to have a run in centre. She needed a full game into her legs.”
Lind said her players were determined not to produce two sub-standard performances in a row.
“They took a bit of ownership for the loss the week before, they did a lot of behind the scenes work as a group and addressed a few issues where they felt players hadn’t been up to scratch and I think they addressed that well,” Lind said.
“I wouldn’t like to say they were complacent against Vic Uni, but I certainly don’t think they were mentally prepared, whereas last night they were red-hot ready to go, and I think that showed in the score.”
City West has three wins from four games, but Lind said it was still too early to accurately gauge how the team was tracking.
“It’s still early days, I wouldn’t even look at the ladder for about five or six weeks because I think teams are sorting themselves out and some teams have probably had an easier run,” she said.
“We’ve probably had a tough run so you really don’t know for another two or three weeks where we’re going to sit.”
In other news, Lind and her daughter Maggie were recognised at the Victorian School Sports Awards. Marg won an Outstanding Community Contribution award for her coaching work with Williamstown High School and Maribyrnong College, while Maggie won a Sporting Blue award for her netball achievements, which included selection in the Victorian and Australian Under 17 netball squads.
