MILDURA’s 2025 A Grade netball campaign is truly up and running after an emphatic “away” victory over Imperials at the Brian Weightman Oval courts in Friday’s Anzac Day clash.
The Demons came out from the start and were never headed on their way to a 61-24 romp over Imps.
They were dominant all over the court and that was highlighted on the scoreboard with Mildura holding Imperials to a mere 10 goals in the first half while netting 35 of their own.
The host side performed marginally better in the second half but the game by then was well and truly out of reach and the Green Machine was basically playing for pride.
After an opening round draw, the Demons have won two on the trot and are starting to get a little separation near the top of the table.
Demons co-coach and goal attack Jess McNamara said the team was starting to finally come together with a number of early absentees returning to the fold.
“The first few weeks, we were missing quite a few of the girls who were away or sick,” she said.
“Thankfully we had a number of girls come up and play but we are now starting to get our team together again.
“Sharon (Watson, who also played last week) is back and also Demelza (Henry).
“Katelyn Challis missed last week, she was over in Vegas having a great time.
“Now everyone is here and should be for the next few weeks.”
McNamara scored 26 but was outpointed by young teammate Ashleigh Morello who bagged a cool 35.
Veteran defender Watson and teen Morello bookended a strong team performance by being chosen as the team’s best.
For Imperials, there were few positives to be taken from the derby game.
“We started a bit slow and Mildura always come out hard,” Imps coach Ali Walker said. “They are a very good team.
“They have been in finals for as long as I can remember and we are trying to get to that level.
“The wet conditions slowed us down and we didn’t release the ball quickly enough and Mildura just pounced on it.
“And they didn’t miss. They’ve got beautiful goalers and today wasn’t our day for that.
“I guess the positive out of it all is that at halftime our demeanour was down, but we just said let’s be positive, let’s lift and do a better job in the third and fourth.
“We still lost them, but it wasn’t by as much and they kept that fight in them and nobody dropped their head or looked disheartened.
“We also got Ebony Littore back from Melbourne which was great, but we were missing Meg McManus and that’s a big out for our team.”
Defender Littore was Imps’ best while Kia Scott was solid at both ends of the court and Maddy McManus performed well at wing attack.
FINAL SCORE
Imperials 24
Mildura 61
