Imps claim first season win over Bulldogs

THE 2025 SFNL A Grade netball season is only in its infancy, but Imperials are developing quite nicely.

The team in green pushed premiers Ouyen United in their opening round clash before falling by eight goals at home, and followed that up on an uncomfortably hot afternoon with their first win of the season – 52-32 over South Mildura at the Mildura Sporting Precinct courts on Saturday.

“Can’t complain so far,” Ali Walker said after completing her coaching duties and then taking to the court with the B side as the day got increasingly warmer.

“We’ve just got to keep working with what we’ve been doing. Keep working on the fitness and the timing down the court and then we will start to work on some set plays, some centre plays, and goalie plays.

“We were feeling really good after last week’s game.

“The girls were just trying to take the positives out of the game. They played together nicely and kept their heads up when things weren’t going our way, which they probably hadn’t done so much in the past.

“It’s nice to have Meg McManus back as she has that versatility to play both ends of the court. It means we’ve got a holding goaler, a moving goaler and a tall goaler. It gives us that flexibility depending on what defenders we come up against.

“The all did a really good job, but I couldn’t fault the goalers. Eb (Ietto) and Meg combined really well.”

South Mildura looked slightly underdone going into their opening game of the season and coach Tara Bate said team cohesion and fitness were going to be primary areas of focus over the next few weeks.

“That was the first time we’ve basically all been together on court with girls playing other sports and things,” Bate said.

“We still need to work on the fitness side, but obviously the heat took that right out of play today, but they did a really good and I was impressed with how they kept going,” she said.

“Both my shooters (Sophie Fox and Amy Lutze) did an amazing job; they played the full game with no rotations. That allowed the rest of us to sub on and off.”

The Bulldogs face late starting Irymple this Good Friday while Imps have an Easter break before an interesting clash with neighbours Mildura.