By DAVID NAGEL
HAMPTON Park and Narre Warren have set things up beautifully for this week’s top-of-the-table clash at Kalora Park after dominating performances in the South East Netball League on Saturday.
The Redbacks put ROC in a hard place with their biggest win of the season, a 68-29 thumping at Robert Booth Reserve, while the Magpies were just as convincing, capitalising on a fast start to down Doveton, 58-41, at Kalora Park.
Narre coach Jade Heinrich was impressed with her side’s performance, particularly the first quarter, considering this was their first outing in 20 days.
“Obviously the length of the break wasn’t ideal but I was really happy with the way we came out of the blocks,” she said.
“Our results show we play a strong four-quarter game and our intensity was high for the full 60 minutes.”
The Magpies were brilliant in the first quarter, scoring 18 goals to 12, with the highlight being the cohesion between Tayla Shannon in goal attack, and goal shooter Elly Stewart. Shannon used her mobility to stretch the Doves’ defence, and her exquisite passing to help Stewart to 14 goals for the quarter.
Hampton Park was missing some of its better players against ROC, but still showed its class with a 39-goal demolition of the Kangaroos. Emma Ryde and Cathy Leeves were nowhere to be seen on the weekend, leaving Kim Coulson, Jemma Franken and Maddison Hanlen as the main mechanics, as the Redbacks fine-tuned their machine for this week’s showdown against the Maggies.
A great defensive effort has steered Pakenham to a 36-32 victory over Berwick at Toomuc Reserve.
The Lions held the Wickers to just six goals in each of the first two quarters.
Michelle Briggs (goal keeping) and Olivia Hunt (goal defence) can claim a lot of the credit for the miserly defence, but so too should Meaghan Winter (wing attack), Taylor Beck (wing defence) and Meaghan Cook (centre), who applied a stack of pressure through the midcourt.
Berwick did respond well after half-time, with Amanda Goodie cutting the margin back to four, with a hot-hand in the final quarter.
Beaconsfield will head into this week’s bye on a high after a 43-28 victory over Tooradin at Holm Park Reserve.
The Eagles had a different look this week, with Gabby Stinear (goal defence) taking over from Kaela Hughes in defence, while Jaz Valentine (goal shooting) was given a starting role. Tara Smith (wing defence), Stacey Sawyer (wing attack) and Shona Wells (centre) were terrific for the Seagulls.
