Last season’s Geelong & District Netball League grand finalists find themselves in a battle to claim a spot in the five with seven sides well in contention for September action.
Reigning premier Belmont Lions are in fifth spot and runner-up Thomson is one rung below with six rounds remaining.
The Lions face a tough run home with four of their six opponents still in the finals race. They meet Winchelsea (4th), Bannockburn (1st), North Geelong (11th), Werribee Centrals (9th), Thomson (6th) and Bell Post Hill (7th).
Coach Shayna Brown said solid recruiting was strengthening the competition.
“It just goes to show that other players from other leagues are wanting to come into our league, which is really good,” she said.
“There’s no, ‘oh GDFNL, I don’t want to go play in that league’ (anymore). There is still that desire for someone to come – it could be some of the old ones like Sharon Ford (Geelong Amateur to Bannockburn) and all that coming back into the league and it is only making our league stronger.”
Belmont was expected to defeat Anakie on Saturday and it did with a 74 to 32 triumph and it was the scoreline that pleased Brown most.
“Anakie are actually a decent side, so to score 70 goals on them, I was pretty happy with that,” she said.
“Just showing that we can actually score and score quickly, which is what we haven’t been able to do probably all season really.”
The Lions had the luxury of being able to move Ellen Doyle away from goal shooter at quarter time to spend the rest of the match in defence.
“We do have a bit of depth in our goaling end,” Brown said.
“I have got a couple of girls injured at the moment so we were a bit scarce down in defence.
“I’ve known Ellen for a long time. She’s a great defender. Probably the past six or so years, she’s been goaling, but she’s also a really great defender.”
With three consecutive wins, the Lions are building, but Brown knows her side can’t drop many more with the season so tight. The next fortnight against Winchelsea (six points clear of Belmont) and Bannockburn will reveal a lot.
“I think the last time we played Winch it was a two- or three-goal loss,” Brown said.
“It wasn’t a bad loss, it could have gone either way, but I think we’ve grown a bit since. Personally, the expectation is we need to win every single game. I don’t want to be relying on percentage and other teams to lose.
“So I think if we scrape through, at least we went through our rut early.”
Star goaler Angelique Ross is recovering well from a ruptured ACL in last year’s second semi-final. In a bid to qualify her for finals should the Lions make it, Ross has almost literally been stepping on and then off the court to get to the minimum amount of games.
“She is not ready to return, but you never know what finals is going to look like,” Brown said.
“Her recovery seems to be going pretty strong so she’s just stepping on and off at the moment. As much as she feels good and wants to play, she’s still quite young. So as much as she probably wants to play – just not yet.
“She’s got an appointment with a surgeon in four weeks, I think. That will really determine whether she can return to training.”
