On face value it was a match between two winless sides sitting at the bottom of the Geelong & District Netball League ladder, but for a rebuilding team such as North Geelong, it was an opportunity to confirm the belief in the direction the club was heading.
The Magpies got out to an eight-goal lead at quarter time against Geelong West Giants and extended the margin at every change to win 57 to 22 at West Oval.
The ease in which the Magpies defeated the Giants even surprised coach Katie McLean.
“We talked about it on Thursday night at training and said how it was a winnable game, but we honestly didn’t expect to win by as much as we did either,” McLean said.
“I was really proud of the girls and the effort that they put in. I think that both times we played them last season, we lost by around 20 goals.
“So to have a 55-goal turnaround was definitely an achievement and it was really good to see that the effort and commitment finally paid off.”
With an 18-goal lead at half-time, North Geelong didn’t ease up and piled on 16 third-quarter goals to five.
“That’s something that we’ve really worked hard on,” McLean said.
“Last season there were a couple of games later on at the back end of the season where they were in it up until half-time and then the third quarter was their problem.
“They just always ran out of legs or I think a lot of it for them has been the mental game, too, because they are such a young group (and) they don’t have a lot of experience up there.
“It all fell into place, something clicked, and I really hope now that moving forward they can believe in themselves that they are capable.”
Several players have stepped up from playing in the lower grades and are making an impact in A grade this season.
Lily Davis had to be coaxed into going up to A Grade, but has shown she is up to the level at goal defence.
“We kind of went backwards and forth and she then said, ‘yep, I want to give it a crack’,” McLean said.
“I said to her that it’s going to be challenging, coming from a lower grade that had been so successful, but I wanted her to see it from a personal perspective and put in that hard work to see what she can get out of it.
“And she’s just come leaps and bounds. The effort that she puts in and the talk that she gives amongst those young girls as well, it’s amazing to see her
achieve what she’s been able to achieve this season.”
Midcourter Cody Dixon has won the last two GDNL B Grade best and fairest medals and has also moved up a grade.
“She’s an absolute workhorse,” McLean said.
“She just makes everything look easy and she does it with discipline. She does it with a smile on her face. She’s just a pleasure to watch with what she puts in on and off the court.”
Moving forward, the fledgling Magpies will work towards bridging the gap between them and the best in the comp.
“The goal always was to give the young ones a chance to come up into those higher grades to get that experience,” McLean said.
“We wanted to keep improving. We’ve got Anakie next week, which again is a doable game so it’d be really good to see if we can roll from what we’ve just been able to do against West and keep that momentum going.
“We wanted to improve on our deficits from last year. If we can get a couple of wins along the way, that’s great. Moving into the second-half (of the season), we play those teams again and bring it in even closer and improve and then see where we can go moving ahead next year.
“It was always the plan to take baby steps and see where we can get.”
