Swallows close out season with big win

IT wasn’t an overly impressive victory or, for that matter, particularly spell-binding to watch, but Irymple’s Shelby Trigg felt her side got just what they needed out of the SFNL A Grade clash at the Brian Weightman Oval courts against Imperials.

With fourth place already locked in on the ladder, the first-year top-level coach said she felt garnered most of what she was seeking heading into an elimination final against Red Cliffs at the George Gordon Oval courts on Sunday.

“We just need to find the form we had midseason, and I think today was more promising but definitely not back to where we were,” Trigg said after the 54 to 43 win over Imps on a freshly resurfaced number two court.

“Our midcourt impressed me today,” she said. “Eliza (Burford), who hasn’t been getting much game time had a full game today, and things we have been doing at training, especially with Indi Spratt in wing attack, worked well.

“Today was a great example of her (Spratt) focussing on and listening to what we want from her and putting it into play. She was determined and fierce all day.”

Trigg spent little time on court and instead got an off-stage view of proceedings.

“I’ve been sick all week,” she said. “Just run down and everyone’s getting little niggles and whatnot, so I was trying to rest up.”

But, there will be little respite for the Swallows as they prepare for the coming knockout encounter against the Tigers in the first week of the finals.

“Last time we played against Red Cliffs we had a really good game,” she said “If we can keep our composure we will go far.

“It will be just sticking to basics this week and really trying to nail them.”

Reaching the finals has already been an achievement of sorts for the young coach.

“I feel like a bit of weight has been lifted off my shoulders, but I didn’t have that expectation that we had to make finals,” she said.

“It was just do the best I could and carry it through with the girls.

“They have proved that we deserve to be there, but now we have made it we can definitely push harder.”

Ali Walker’s Imperials showed improvement this season with a 5-11 record, but she knows there’s still plenty of work to be done for her team to be able to battle it out with the league’s elite.

Imps were only four goals off the pace at halftime but couldn’t sustain that effort in the second half.

“Like every week, we show we can play the game and we’ve got patches of play that are really solid and textbook netball,” walker said.

“It’s just doing that for four quarters and putting it all together and maintaining it, that’s the problem.

“The team has had a good attitude as a group this year and they have tried to stay positive, which is hard when we haven’t been winning games.

“There’s plenty we can keep working on but it’s solid competition we are playing against.

“We need more depth in the club. We’ve really only had seven this season, and other teams are rotating 10 to 12 players.

“Early on, we had three people rolling on, but we don’t have that flexibility every week.

“There are people in the B Grade who are strong enough to be playing A Grade, but probably not good enough to push us into the top five, and that also affects our B Grade team which is third.”

The final gongs of the season before a welcome break for the team in green were shared by midcourters.

“I gave it to Meg (McManus) and Ella (Hards), but Tracey (Sherlock) was very solid. She just ran and got touches all day. The three girls in the midcourt were so strong,” Walker said.

Imperials 43 def. by Irymple 53

Best: Imperials – Meg McManus, Ella Hards. Irymple – Indi Spratt, Eliza Burford.