MERINGUR’S Millewa A Grade netball finals ambitions will remain well and truly alive if they can salute on Saturday.
The Roos sit two wins behind fourth-placed Cardross with three fixtures remaining in the home-and-away season and will travel to the Lions’ den this weekend for an old-school ‘eight-point game’.
A Cardross victory would extinguish those hopes and solidify the top four.
However, the girls in blue and white will take confidence from their 38-30 victory in their previous encounter at Lake Cullulleraine.
Coach Emily Harlock-Knights said this had been a strong developmental year for the A Grade squad and the whole netball program.
“We’re excited: we’ve had a win against Cardross previously and we’ll put our best foot forward to potentially do that again,” Harlock-Knights said.
“Even though we lost last week (to Bambill) in those windy conditions there’s still a lot we can take away from that game.
“Like any club we would love to be able to make finals, but if it’s not to be this year then it feels like we’ve been putting a lot of things in place behind the scenes for us to help grow into the future.
“Like a lot of teams we’ve had our share of injuries this year, but the fact we’ve been able to change things around and give some of our younger players and those from other grades some opportunities as well has been a real positive.”
Teagan Pettigrew, Lakayla Pettit and Emily Gleeson have all be regular features in the Roos’ best players this season, the versatile Kim Harlock has had to fill multiple roles across the campaign, while Lauren McFarlane earned praise for her recent form.
“This group has had a couple of weeks together,” Harlock-Knights said.
“Unfortunately earlier in the year we had Maddy McPhee go down with injury, which meant we had to make some changes.
“This team has pulled together really well.”
Elsewhere, the third meeting this season between last year’s grand finalists Werrimull and Nangiloc heads to Lake Cullulleraine, with the ladder-leading Magpies having won both of those encounters.
Meanwhile, Bambill can take another step towards locking in the double chance and a top-two finish when they head to Alcheringa Oval to face Gol Gol.
