By Colin MacGillivray
WHILE Lancefield suffered a 42-goal loss at the hands of Wallan in its first A Grade netball game of the Riddell District Football Netball League season, there was plenty to celebrate for the Tigers.
Coach Michelle Rix said the effort and attitude of her charges could not be questioned in the 67-25 defeat, with young debutante Darcee Ellard’s strong play typifying the day.
“Obviously scoreboard-wise we took a big hit, but development-wise I’m really impressed with what our girls have done,” she said.
“We’ve come a long way. We had struggled for the last three years to field four teams here at Lancefield and finally we’ve got our four teams on the court.
“We’ve just got to keep plugging away and working on our skills. There’s a lot of youth coming through, which is very promising for our local girls.”
Alongside Ellard, players such as Amanda Bruce and Kira Baldwin competed well with Wallan goalies Tahnysha Salanoa and Chloe Meulenmeesters.
All Lancefield footballers and netballers wore gold laces in support of the Childhood Cancer Association, and Rix said the cause had brought the club together.
“Cancer is a horrible thing, but childhood cancer is probably the worst. Any families who have been dealing with cancer in the past 12 months have had COVID plus cancer and it’s such an amazing charity supporting families,” she said.
“One thing here at Lancefield is we seem to have an amazing vibe. It’s a happy and safe place for our girls, so we’re developing them in a good environment and for me that’s really important.”
Wallan coach Chris Cameron was also impressed with his side’s effort in the win.
He said the Magpies had applied lessons learnt in their round one win against Romsey.
“[Taking care of the ball] was much better and that was a huge focus across the whole squad, especially with A Grade,” he said.
“Having clear connections and links down the court and our phase work was what we saw, and they were getting the ball down into attack a lot easier from defence.
“I was really impressed Sidonie Moore in the midcourt. We did a few things that we wanted to work on this week with her, and she played a good, controlled game moving the ball into attack.
“Today was about playing united, and I think all of the girls played together this week and were really connected.”
Wallan will now take on the Western Rams, who had a first-up win against Melton Central before a bye in round two.
Lancefield will travel to take on rival Romsey, which suffered a 50-goal defeat at the hands of Woodend Hesket at the weekend.
Abbey Duggan, Carolyn McCarthy and Amy Stewart were the standout performers for the Redbacks in the 70-20 loss.
