IMPERIALS 57 d IRYMPLE 38
BEST: Imperials: E. Littore, M. McManus. Irymple: J. Delcastegne, I. Spratt.
THREE THINGS WE LEARNT
IMPORTANT ADDITIONS: Adding former Mildura duo Amy Dodds and Maddie Alvino to the ranks has been a smart bit of squad building for Imperials. Dodds rarely misses under the ring and Alvino has a real play-making ability. Combine those two with Ebony Littore, who was arguably best on court, and it’s a scary attacking trio.
KEEP THE HANDS CLEAN: The one-touch game that worked so well for Irymple last week just wasn’t there against Imperials. The Swallows outfit just lost their feet or possession of the ball at different times and their confidence level seemed to drop. There will always be fluctuations with a young squad however and they will be right around the mark for finals.
HEIGHT DIFFERENCE: Especially with Steph O’Loughlin injured, it’s not exactly a tall Irymple side, and Imperials were able to expose that at times with accurate lob passing. Being able to find any separation on a direct opponent is important and with a reach advantage Imperials could do so more often.
IT was a complete team performance that Imperials’ A Grade netball coach Kym Mayne had been craving from her side.
On Saturday they delivered in spades to defeat fellow top-four fancies Irymple by 19 goals.
The Green Machine led from go-to-whoa in a performance that moves them up to third on the table, only behind 2019 grand finalists Wentworth and Ouyen United.
Mayne was impressed with the all-round performance of her troops against a young an mostly inexperienced Swallows outfit.
“Very impressed. We knew we had it in us, it’s just taken us 10 weeks to play four full quarters, to be honest,” she said.
“I spoke to the girls about the standard that they are and playing as a team because there is no better feeling than playing really well as team and coming off with a win.
“That’s exactly what we’ve been working on for the past couple of weeks (knowing each others’ running patterns) and we’ve been doing it spasmodically in the first half of the season so we knew we just had to put it all together and play a full four quarters of that kind of play.
“There was no doubt where anyone needed to be as they were all in the right position, and we finished off really well with Amy (Dodds) and ‘Ebs’ (Ebony Littore) shooting amazingly.
Mayne said she is happy with the attacking trio of Dodds, Littore and Maddie Alvino, and also praised the performance of defender Meg McManus on former Horkings Medal winner Sherrie Geister.
“It’s a great attacking trio,” she said.
“You’ve got the experience of Amy Dodds, they’re all at good fitness levels, they can all shoot and Maddie throws in some rocket passes every now and then, so they’re working really well. And of course, Alle Littore (in centre), who’s so good aerially and smart with her passes to the two shooters.
“I thought ‘Megsy’ was outstanding on Sherrie. She’s a great player with a really strong playmaking ability, and I thought our defence, with credit to ‘Megsy’, took her out of the game. When you can do that to one of their key players it always helps.”
Mayne spoke to her players about following the standard they have now set for themselves.
“This is the standard we need to maintain, we should have been at that level a few weeks earlier,” she said.
“We have managed to maintain the wins so we’re still happy with that, but we need to make sure this is the standard we set.
“The top four to six could be anywhere, we were sitting below them, with one game less, so that was an important win for us.”
