RED Cliffs will face a litmus test of their improvement in 2022 when they take on the SFNL’s only unbeaten A-grade netball side, Wentworth, on Saturday.
With the two teams clashing at Quandong Park from noon, Tigers coach Steph O’Loughlin said today’s game would be a good opportunity for the team to gauge their performance and try some new combinations.
She said the team was coming off a tough few weeks since recording their first win in nearly eight years on May 7.
“We had two wins in a row and then we have had a couple of harder weeks with sickness going through our team and a couple (of players) being away,” she said.
“We haven’t had a full squad for a while and we still won’t have a full squad this weekend.”
O’Loughlin said the Tigers were expecting the Roos to be “very tough to beat”.
“If you look at Wentworth’s form they’ve been beating most teams by over 20 (goals),” she said.
“If we can keep it under 20 we are doing pretty good.
“It is going to be a good test for us and we are going to use this weekend to trial a few different things for the next few weeks against Merbein and Irymple.”
O’Loughlin said she hoped to have all available players at the game and even said there may be a new addition to the A-grade side.
“We are missing one of our mid-courters and that is all I know of so far,” she said.
“I’m hoping everyone will be fit, the last few weeks we have lost players on game day, so it’s been hard.
“We have been taking from B grade and hoping to have a new person play this week.”
Wentworth playing coach Amanda Edwards said the team was looking forward to playing against Red Cliffs.
“Red Cliffs have always been a really great club to come up against and really looking forward to the hit-out this weekend,” she said.
“(Red Cliffs) have some new players and a new coach in Steph so I’m sure they have got some new structures, so (this game is) a bit of an unknown for us but looking forward to the challenge.”
While Red Cliffs hope to minimise the damage against Wentworth, Edwards said the Roos aimed to keep the opposition’s score down.
“We have targets that we want to hit and we want to keep our opposition team at the lowest score possible,” she said.
“We strive ourselves on our defence all across the court so we keep trying to push on and keep the scoreboard ticking over at same time and hopefully we keep getting those wins.”
