Shepparton's Genna Ogier steadies herself before shooting during the match against Kyabram.
Photo by
Liam Nash
Good luck finding middle ground at the midway mark of the Goulburn Valley League A-grade netball season.
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Saturday saw the teams whiz around the hairpin bend and shift gears for the second half sprint, and it’ll be a neck-and-neck race with eight points separating second from eighth.
Only Euroa stands clear of the rest.
The Magpies put in their ninth flawless performance of the campaign at the weekend, scoring a 60-43 victory over title challenger Seymour.
Euroa overturned a three-goal deficit at the first change to streak ahead in the play to follow as mercurial goaler Olivia Morris went on to drill 39 goals under the ring.
At Tatura Park, Echuca and the hosting Bulldogs played out a barn-burning draw.
The two sides were never more than a few goals apart during the hour of captivating netball, with a goal-for-goal final few minutes resulting in a 41-all split when all was said and done.
It leaves Tatura in third on 26 points and Echuca in fifth, four points adrift.
Sandwiched in between the two powers is Shepparton, which shifted the magnets around in a comprehensive 20-goal beating of Kyabram.
A usually young Bombers’ side went even greener on the day, with 16-year-old duo Ava Pell and Rose Cunningham tapped to take on the mighty Bears.
Shepparton's Hannah Crawley marshals from defence.
Photo by
Liam Nash
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Kyabram's Natasha Dodos lines up a shot under the ring.
Photo by
Liam Nash
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Shepparton's Caitlyn Tuohey looks to feed the goaling circle.
Photo by
Liam Nash
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Kyabram's Jemma Hall shimmies around before finding a pass.
Photo by
Liam Nash
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Kyabram's Ava Pell winds up a one-arm pass.
Photo by
Liam Nash
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Shepparton's Sophie Harmer goes up and over.
Photo by
Liam Nash
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Kyabram's Isla Carver bides her time before looking for options.
Photo by
Liam Nash
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Kyabram's Natasha Dodos stretches out to claim the ball.
Photo by
Liam Nash
Kim Borger was as ruthless as ever in goals for Shepparton, shooting 17 of her side’s 20 successful first-quarter attempts to push Stacey Thompson’s charges well ahead.
After the break, Keeley O’Dwyer was given a well-earned rest, while Borger also took leave at half-time to allow Genna Ogier and Sophie Harmer to string together patterns in attack.
By and large, the gamble paid off.
The Bears, fuelled by their ball of energy in the nucleus, Paigan Impey, soldiered on and claimed a 59-39 result to return to the winners’ list following the previous loss to Tatura.
However, Kyabram walked off the court with heads held high after playing a solid four quarters against a highly-touted and highly-experienced Shepparton unit.
Thompson was rapt to witness her side's full versatility in a game that threatened to peter out early on.
“It was good today; we got to try lots of different things and rotated around,” she said.
“We had a few off the court that hadn’t had a chance to be off the court for the last few weeks, but it was nice to trial new combinations and build on a few things that we’ve been working on at training.
“I just love that we have the ability to be flexible and the last few weeks we probably haven’t used that to our advantage as much. It was good today to see that play out.”
Thompson lauded the dynamic combination of Ogier and Harmer as well as Impey’s tempo, also praising the defensive game of Tess Simpkin who was elevated from B-grade.
She knows that her full arsenal will need to fire as a thorny fortnight of games approaches.
“We’ve got a big two weeks — we go to Echuca then Mooroopna — so it was very good to trial a few different things in that space knowing what we’ve got coming and have a few more things up our sleeve when we take on these stronger teams,” Thompson said.
“We’re a whole new team with new combinations. We’ve got to work out what ‘us’ is and how we play and what our strengths are, and each week I think we’re doing that and we’re internally really happy with how we sit.
“Externally, I think a few people are a bit shocked with some of the losses, but we’re still doing what we want, so it’s great.”
In the round’s final game, Shepparton Swans crept into seventh on the ladder thanks to a 76-42 win over Benalla.
