Roos topple Demons to stay unbeaten

WENTWORTH Roos A Grade netballers remain undefeated and firmly on top of the SFNL ladder after a resounding 52 to 27 victory against second placed Mildura Demons in their round nine clash at George Gordon Oval on Saturday.

The competition’s team to beat didn’t let the cold windy conditions phase them, as the Roos surged to an early 19 to 6 advantage by quarter-time, which the away side could never recover from.

The match was largely dictated by Wentworth’s assertive and physical defensive puzzles that Mildura struggled to solve as the deficit was 17 going into the halftime break.

Leading goal scorer for competition, player-coach Amanda Edwards, was once again uncontainable under the post, finishing with 29 goals in yet another solid display.

“Our first quarter was massive,” she said.

“I’m so impressed with the quality we put out today as everyone played their role perfectly.

“Lots of girls got to step us as well and to be able to debut Eli Fonua today as well was really great.”

Roos goal keeper Natalie Vercher and defence Courtney Wakefield were integral for the group as their persistent protective pressure snuffed out any Demons momentum and repelling repeated entries.

“Nat Vercher was amazing at the back for us in goal keeper alongside her sidekick Courtney,” said Edwards.

“Molly Mangan in attack was also just feeding the ball beautifully to us forward.”

Wentworth’s focus going into the fixture was about maintaining formations to suffocate attacks which was executed perfectly.

“We’ve been working really hard before the game on getting together, grouping and just our structures early,” said Edwards

“Maybe the last couple weeks we were a little bit slower off the start and today was amazing.”

“I was really happy with how we came out firing.”

The Demons tried to wrestle their way back into the game with some positional changes, but it wasn’t enough to halt the Roos.

Mildura’s Ava Zadow, moving from defence into attack did ask more questions of the hosts defence as she finished the contest with 13 goals, but the damage was too great to salvage.

“We want to do the basics well and I thought we did that really good today,” said Edwards.

“We were able to back up each other on the court, and we wanted to be the first ones getting to those loose balls as well.”

“So I was really proud of that aspect.”

Despite their unbeaten run this year remaining firmly intact and a possessing high quality depth among their squad, Edwards said their break next round has come at an opportune time.

“We’re got a few injuries at the moment, so the bye’s come at a really good time for us next week.

“We will really look at taking it easy over this couple of weeks, but the strength of our squad has been amazing.

“We run an A/B squad and I’m just so proud of everyone that’s been able to step up and perform as they’re a great bunch of girls, really competitive and a pleasure to coach.”

Edwards tally for the season has moved up to 332 goals, 77 more than second placed shooter Zara Copley with Red Cliffs.

The Roos will next play Ouyen United at their Dareton fortress in two weeks’ time in the second 2024 grand final rematch this season.

Round 10 see Mildura back at home taking on Imps in another Battle of Brian Weightman Oval.