EXTENDING their flawless winning season, the Wentworth Roos delivered yet another clinical showing with a 55-40 victory against Irymple away at Henshilwood Oval netball courts on Saturday.
The ever reliable scoring machine and player-coach Amanda Edwards poured in 44 of her side’s goals to help steer the Roos to a 12th straight triumph.
However, despite an ending deficit of 15, the Swallows made life difficult for Wentworth’s cohort early on.
Irymple matched the enduring intensity of the SNFL’s ladder leaders across the opening term and trailed by just three goals at the first break.
The second quarter was much the same as the margin had been cut to just a one point advantage for Wentworth at 16-15 before the Roos wrestled back momentum midway through their trademark persistent pressing forcing several turnovers from the hosts.
Swaying the tide, the visitors capitalised emphatically by slotting eight unanswered goals to blow open what had been a tight affair.
Wentworth had an 11 point breathing space by half-time.
“That’s what it’s all about, isn’t it, just having that tough fought contested play,” said Edwards.
“They came out really hard, we expected that and the way that we were just able to keep playing our game, I though that was really good.
“Those moments were really critical, and I thought we executed well.”
Allowing just eight goals in the third period, the Roos defensive intensity lifted, and they pushed their lead out to 17, controlling loose ball contests.
“I was really proud of our defensive efforts all over the court,” Edwards said.
“We pride ourselves on getting there first and being red, white and blue all over that ball.”
Among several standout performances, wing-defence Christie Becker was immense for Wentworth, nullifying a rotating cast of Irymple attackers and repeatedly disrupting any Swallows forward flow while also being pivotal in transition.
“Christie Becker was amazing today,” said Edwards.
“A bit of wing defence goes a bit unnoticed sometimes, but she had multiple wing attacks on her today.
“With the amount of change happening from Irymple’s side, I thought she did really well and put us in a good spot defensively.”
Wentworth are firmly seated on top of the SFNL table with four rounds of regular season action remaining, still yet to drop a game this year.
Edwards now has 521 goals for the year, a staggering 153 more than the competitions second highest scorer, Robinvale Euston’s Sarah Hepburn.
“For us, it’s just now working on little things, those one percenters where we can get the edge,” said Edwards.
“Loose ball gets, converting, being patient in attack.
“Today was a really good example of that.”
Regardless of the defeat, Irymple are still comfortably positioned in the coveted top five, especially with Red Cliffs and Merbein also falling short in their respective Saturday fixtures.
The Roos are back on home court next weekend when they face Merbein while the Swallows take on Red Cliffs in a fourth versus fifth encounter.
