Ebony-Rose P has left the team, everyone else was present.
There isn't much you can do against one of the very top sides except do your best!
Players were asked to keep their feet steady and make sure that they nail their passes.
Both teams negated each other in opening minutes but then the opposition made great use of lob passes under the ring. The defence was caught out and in a matter of minutes the game was essentially over. Mid-court players were not getting the ball forward with useful passes and that mean that the defence was under enormous pressure. DC Flamingos had some good chances to score but missed often. The blow-out saw the score line 11-3 down.
A re-arrangement of the team strengthened the defence and restricted the opposition's forward momentum a little. A better accuracy in shooting also helped. The score was lamenting at 6-19.
At halftime, players were asked to keep moving on the court. There weren't any passing options from stoppages in play. It was placing incredible risk and pressure on the passer and more often than not, the ball would get intercepted and come back immediately under the post for a goal against.
The third quarter was more encouraging. There were less passes missing their targets and the play in general was opening up to provide very good feeds to the shooters. This means that the opposition was getting less of the ball and therefore less goals but, at the same time, DC Flamingos didn't score either. End of the third quarter saw the score at 6-25.
The last quarter was the best of the game. The team had possession most of the time and shut the opposition scorers down. Good passes going forward created some nice chances for goal and the result was a win in the final quarter of 3-1.
Praises for tremendous defence to Erin K and Maddi L in GD & GK who managed to save a dozen or so goals and must be getting sick and tired of the ball coming their way so much. A fabulous shot by Steph L as she was falling out of court and unbalanced is also worth a mention. Tremendous shooting by Emma W with 100% success rate when in GA.
The team looks fantastic when every player is on the move. Unfortunately, this only happens in patches during quarters and the team usually becomes flatfooted and stagnant at other times. The only way to win a netball game is to pass to moving target and that means that players need to keep running and time their sprinting to position to create options. Drills at training have been used to encourage this but low attendance is an issue. The team had a very good run of performances (including a nice win) when players were turning up for training. But the coach can't make players run if they are not that way inclined. Skills won't improve either if training isn't a priority.
The U15AR competition is completely unbalanced by 4 or 5 teams that should be playing U15A. Bad luck would have the DC Flamingos playing those teams twice in this season. For some reason that only the club knows, the U15A and U15AR teams were not regraded early in the season to make sure that the competitions were fair and reasonable. Somewhere along the line common sense went out the window. You only need to look at the ladder to see that 4 or 5 teams are being beaten badly week after week and 4 or 5 teams are doubling or tripling their opponents score week after week.
This game was a tough effort with flashes of brilliance from the team.