Wallan’s A Grade netballers came out on top after a competitive match against Riddell on Saturday.
Round three of the 2024 Riddell District Football Netball League, RDFNL, competition, both sides brought the heat to make the final result 39 to 36.
Each term was looking close on the scoreboard, especially at half time when Riddell was up by two points, which meant Wallan needed to pounce in the last two quarters to secure the win.
Entering the home game against a strong team, coach Lucas Bennett-Hullin said the team followed its game plan closely to secure the 3-point victory.
“It was really good, we always knew Riddell was going to be a tough team, they’ve always been strong with some really good players,” he said.
“We put together our game plan … what we wanted to achieve, and we followed our game plan pretty closely and obviously it worked in our favour.
“Our focus was mainly remaining calm … and controlling the tempo, which was something we did really, really well.”
Bennett-Hullin praised the entire team for its performance on the day.
“So far every week everybody [has] stepped up … Maddie Wallmeyer was probably the standout this week,” he said.
“The whole game played so well, Alyssa Pearse and Jackie De Waele … played awesome, Maeve Donegan shot well again, Genevieve Carboon the captain had another great game.
“The whole team performed, they followed the game plan almost to perfection and the results came our way.”
Wallan has had a good start to the season so far with two wins and will go up against Melton Centrals in round four.
“Consistency is what we’re really working at the moment, we’ve had a good start to the season, but we know it’s a marathon not a sprint,” Bennett-Hullin said.
“Melton had a couple of tough losses, but you can’t look at that at face value … so it’s really just [about] tuning some of the stuff that we need to work on in the game, the small things, and putting that on court, and really building that consistency.”
Elsewhere Lancefield suffered a huge loss at its away game, losing 69 to 25 in a tough match against Woodend-Hesket.
Goal attack opponent Charlee Duff-tytler was the Hawks’ upper hand for the Tigers to only make a few goals in each term.
The Tigers were unable to match the Hawk’s scoring efforts, but Lancefield’s Tarnee Hammond showed great shooting, with 20 goals to her name.
Meanwhile it was good news for Romsey at the weekend, securing a 29-55 victory.
Romsey’s Hope Hamilton, Charlize Bellette and Emma Grech were the top scorers to defeat RDFNL newcomers Kyneton.
Romsey has a bye in round four while Lancefield will go up against Kyneton this Thursday.
Football
In other RDFNL action, Wallan senior footballers fell short at a home game against Riddell on Saturday.
The entire match was a low scoring game for both sides as the result was 41-62.
Wallan was first to score, but the Bombers were quick to make it their game, with a 10-point lead at the end of the first quarter.
The Pies managed to achieve a few goals from Wallan’s Jacob Langborne in the second quarter – a great effort but not enough to outscore Riddell.
Heading into round four, Wallan will play away against Melton Centrals.
Round three was also a sad loss for Lancefield, only securing 16 points the entire game.
Woodend-Hesket pushed hard and racked up an 81-point win.
It was not a good day for Lancefield considering the outcome was already determined by the end of the second quarter.
Lancefield will play a home game this Thursday against Kyneton.
Elsewhere Romsey was on the victory side in round three, making a 11.9 (75) to 15.7 (97) win.
