IRYMPLE coach Tammie Rowe said teamwork will be the key to remaining competitive as her side takes on the league’s three best teams.
Irymple play second-placed Mildura in Saturday’s round 12 game, before clashing with third-placed Ouyen United and first-placed Wentworth in rounds 13 and 14.
Rowe said the fourth-placed side was working on their team connections ahead of the challenging run of matches.
“I think it will just be really concentrating on playing as a team and knowing your role within that team, rather than having seven individuals on the court which is really how it started this season,” she said.
“We have been working really hard to actually gel together and play off one another and I think that is starting to come together.
“I think it is really important as that is what sets you up, especially against these tougher teams.”
Irymple, who were in fourth position at the season’s half-way point, suffered a “disappointing” loss to South Mildura (40-36) in round 10, which knocked them back to fifth.
After a close game between South Mildura and Imperials (49-47) and a slighter bigger win for Irymple over Robinvale Euston (46-38), Irymple were able to snatch back fourth place by less than one per cent.
Rowe said Irymple hoped to maintain their ladder position heading into the back end of the season.
“Obviously the South game was really disappointing because it was such an important game to win,” she said.
“We have had injuries over the last few weeks so that game we felt was really important to secure a spot, but unfortunately that didn’t come off so that makes the back half of the season a little more challenging, but we can still make the four and that is what we are striving for.”
Rowe said she thought the team were showing significant improvement.
“We are starting to connect quite well now and sort of have team plays and we are gelling together quite well as a team,” she said.
“We feel like for the second half of the season we are going to be a lot stronger and consistent than what we were in the first half.”
Rowe said for today’s game against Mildura, Irymple would try to pressure the side’s attacking players.
“Pressuring the ball coming down the court defensively will be really important for us,” she said.
“We will aim to be applying as much pressure from a defensive point of view as possible, they are very, very strong on both ends but they are a very strong attacking side.”
Mildura co-coach Sharon Watson said she thought Irymple was a bit of a “dark horse” and said she was ready for a competitive game.
“We can’t take any team lightly,” she said.
“They’ve have got some good players all the way through from the defensive end to goal end and the mid so we will have to be on our game.”
Watson said every team had be taken seriously as despite how the ladder had panned out so far, positions were not secure until the end of the season.
“We have got about six games (left) each with the bye in there,” she said.
“So there is plenty of season left, so anything could happen.”
Mildura has managed to maintain second place on the ladder, only defeated by the unbeaten Wentworth.
Watson had hoped Mildura could get a win over Wentworth in round 10 but the game didn’t go as planned.
“We were great for a half of netball but with a team like Wentworth, you’ve got to play four solid quarters or they destroy you like they did to us,” she said.
In Saturday’s other games, fifth-placed South Mildura look to defeat seventh-placed Red Cliffs, potentially getting one up after the Tigers beat the Bulldogs in round 3.
Third-placed Ouyen United take on eighth-placed Merbein at Blackburn Park and sixth-placed Imperials aim to climb the ladder with a win against bottom-placed Robinvale Euston at John James Oval.
Wentworth has the bye.
