DOMINANT second and third quarters by Irymple set up a crucial 49-43 win over Ouyen United, which both consolidates Irymple’s position in the top five and leaves the mathematicians at Ouyen trying to calculate whether SFNL A Grade finals are still possible.
Ouyen had the better start, stifling Irymple’s offence superbly.
However, a few positional changes by Swallows’ coach Shelby Trigg opened her side’s attacking game, with the squad scoring 31 goals in the second and third quarters combined.
Ouyen fought hard in the last quarter to shrink the eight-goal margin at three quarter time back to just two goals, but Irymple steadied to get the all important win.
Trigg said she was happy with her side’s rebound after the first quarter.
“We reassessed at quarter time and made a few changes,” said Trigg.
“I came out of GS and let Tarlia Couzner have the ring to herself and that seemed to work a lot better. She definitely did her part. We really settled in the second and third quarters.
“I was really happy with the overall team performance. Next week against Mildura will be a great test to see where we are at.”
Couzner finished with 39 goals and was her team’s best, along with defender Alice Leeder.
It was another frustrating, narrow defeat for the Kangas and their coach Kyra Nathan.
“Irymple played really well. They are enjoyable to play against,” said Nathan.
“They play a similar style to us and are clean. We got the momentum in the last quarter, then they took it back and we just couldn’t peg the margin back. Tsharni Burns was really good for us in GK.
“Our defence end worked well and we were able to get a lot of ball back. We just can’t get the win at the moment. We will solider on.”
