Blues netballers play their way into semi finals
Wednesday July 28, 2010
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The Cobar Blues A and B Grade netball teams are headed to semi finals of the Northern Riverina League after their wins against Lake Cargelligo on Saturday at Ward Oval.
The Cobar Blues A and B Grade representative netball teams sent a clear message to their Northern Riverina League counterparts that they mean business following comprehensive Round 14 wins over both Lake Cargelligo sides on Saturday at Ward Oval.
Both Cobar teams started their games confidently and won their matches by big margins with B Grade beating Lake Cargelligo 38-22 while A Grade showed the Lake side no mercy in their game winning 61-46.
Coach Amie Jacklin said she was very proud of both teams’ efforts on Saturday and pleased that the game tactics deployed against Lake Cargelligo had worked.
“After Lake had beaten us both in the first round (B Grade 26-22 and A Grade 46-27), I had to come up with new tactics if we wanted to win this time,” Coach Jacklin said.
“I was confident that the new game plan would work and it was great to see that it did right from the start of the A Grade game.”
One of Jacklin’s tactics was to move Lane Poland from Goal Shooter out to Goal Attack to create pressure in the centre court.
This worked instantly with Poland taking an intercept on Lake’s first centre pass and the Cobar side led 4-0 before a “rattled” Lake Cargelligo team could get points on the board.
The strong Cobar defence kept the Lake Cargelligo side frustrated all game and Cobar streaked to a 17-10 lead in the first quarter.
Zoë Harland, returning from a long break due to injury, looked to have lost no form in her time off the court and showed great athletic skills assisting Poland in the goal circle.
The pair gelled well in their new positions to rack up the big final score of 61 goals.
Despite taking a fall early in the match, Cobar Centre Tanya Huon wasn’t put off and played her usual outstanding game as team captain. Her centre court teammates of Karleen Duell (Wing Attack) and Demi Smith (Wing Defence) also played strong games to help the team to a big win.
Venessa Kurta (Goal Keeper) and Amie Jacklin (Goal Defence) read Lake’s game play well and intercepted numerous passes to keep the Lake shooters out of their goal circle.
In a game where it was hard to pick Cobar’s best player, the Coach’s Award went to Poland with Poland also sharing the Players’ Player award with Huon and Smith.
The B Grade game started on an even keel with the score locked at 10-all at the first break however the Cobar side was playing with a new found confidence and soon took a five goal lead at half time.
Shooters Nicola Harbison and Simone Howard were in stunning form while the B Grade defence combination of Karlee Davis, Amy McConville, Naomi Whitehurst and Sarah Irvine played their usual strong games to shut down Lake’s attack and force errors on numerous occasions.
Sharp shooting from Harbison and Howard stretched the margin to 31-20 at three-quarter time while Cobar’s solid defence limited Lake to just two goals in the final quarter for Cobar to finish the game with a comprehensive
38-22 win.
Davis picked up the Players’ Player award while the coach’s award went to Centre Jenna Fullagar.
Both teams will meet their Ungarie counterparts this Saturday in the elimination semi final to be played at Lake Cargelligo.
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