Bulldogs rally for key away win

SOUTH Mildura’s fits and starts 2025 SFNL A Grade campaign continued at the weekend with a two-goal triumph over hosts Imperials at a sunny Brian Weightman courts.

The Bulldogs took the early advantage and led by five goals at half-time, but Imps rallied and pulled level at 43-all halfway through the final term, before South drew a second breath and through some clutch late shooting from Sophie Fox pulled off a 49-47 win.

The win improved the Dogs’ record to 4-6 with two sets of back-to-back victories being separated by a string of losses.

“We’re striving for consistency,” South coach Tara Bate said after the tense encounter.

“We’ve had some ups and downs with injuries and stuff like that throughout our whole squad.

“Getting girls to training is also tough because we have a lot of ladies who have got (young) families.”

The Bulldogs have something of a break now with a bye and the interleague round being separated by a game against Merbein.

“Sometimes it’s easier to keep on going rather than stopping but giving the girls a bit of a rest is good,” said Bate, who could also benefit from a break to help her recover from plantar faciitis.

“The girls are really starting to back each other up and we are all hungry.

“Sophie (Fox) has been killing it each week. She just keeps doing some awesome things in there (shooting circle) with Amy Lutze and Alyse Ross just keeps feeding the ball in as well.”

Bate had a battle royale of her own on Saturday against Imps’ star centre Tracey Sherlock.

“Each week I keep coming up against these young girls who are quite fit and that scares me, but it’s all right,” she said.

Looking forward, the coach said she believes finals are well within reach on a bunched ladder.

“If we can keep doing what we are doing we can get there (finals),” she said.

“This year seems to be a very strange one. You don’t know who’s going to take the win at the end of the day.”

Despite the loss, Ali Walker’s Imps are also in the finals hunt – also a 4-6 record and only four points behind fifth-placed Red Cliffs.

Again, a slow start cost Imps dearly.

“ Our focus was on that second half and to come back hard,” Walker said.

“Every time we had the ball our goal was to keep possession, get our shots and keep chasing those balls down but South just did it better today.

“We just needed to get off to better starts. We are inconsistent and we can’t seem to get the momentum going for a whole quarter.

“We can do some really good passages of play, then we drop a ball and we lose five (possessions) in a row.”

The remedy seems simple according to Walker.

“It’s just doing drills, keep chasing balls,” she said. “When you pass the ball you’ve got to go for the next one or get out of the way and then go again. There’s no standing still and thinking the job is done.”

A newcomer and a veteran were chosen as the team in green’s best.

“Our gave our best to Lottie (Littore), our young goal shooter who played her first game today,” the coach said.

“She shot pretty accurately in a pressure game. And we needed Meg (McManus) really at both ends of the court.

“She played really good in defence, but we then swung her into attack as we needed that height for rebounds.

“But overall, we’ve got to get wins on the board soon if we want to keep those finals options open. That was a tough one today because South are behind us on the ladder.”

FINAL WHISTLE

SOUTH MILDURA	49
IMPERIALS	47