Saturday afternoon saw the Lions suit up against reigning premier Echuca, and if there was any doubt as to whether the Murray Bombers still had the moxie to move into the second round of finals, that was quickly quashed.
Belinda Lees’ green army rallied to stave off a third-quarter blitz by the Lions and broke away in the final term to assuage concern and claim a 41-34 victory.
But even she admitted it was tight.
“Well, Seymour didn’t go away, did they?” Lees said with a laugh.
“They gave us a bit of a fright in the third quarter. We just knew that if we just stuck to our systems and played for each other that we would hopefully get on top at the end.
“And that’s what’s really special about this group. I think in any situation, we just keep playing and hopefully at the end, we’re on top.
“I thought our defence end was really great today. They gave us a lot of ball in conditions that were really difficult to shoot for both teams.”
A heavy breeze in Tatura made scoring tricky, but regardless of conditions, the game erupted with a fast, frenetic tempo.
Seymour set the tone with Ally Black’s first goal, summoning a deafening roar from the travelling Lions’ supporters behind the post.
Conversely, Echuca coughed up a string of uncharacteristic mistakes, turning the ball over cheaply.
But as Lees later indicated, the Murray Bombers were only growing stronger.
Echuca sidestepped the early nerves to lead 11-7 at the first change and rolled on throughout the second term, building its lead to nine goals at the half.
Seymour needed to adjust, and the major change came in the form of Ruby Martin crossing the court to occupy the goal shooter role.
It worked.
Seymour was flowing and flourishing as the quarter progressed, with Ellie Fuhrmeister and Martin ticking the goals in as Fuhrmeister’s disguised shot-turn-pass in to Martin confused Echuca’s defenders.
The Lions surged back to eat up a 10-goal deficit during the third quarter, and all of a sudden, only three goals were in it.
Echuca, however, had its final act down pat.
Largely through their experienced heads through the spine — Lees, Steph Vick and Ash Mangan — the Murray Bombers calmed through choppy waters.
Seymour’s Olivia Barry was ejected from the contest which compounded the Lions’ woes, while on Echuca’s end, Holly Chadwick was humming in the dying embers.
With the hooter’s blare, Seymour’s season ended while Echuca’s campaign edged one step closer to a repeat premiership.
Lees spoke about the huddle chatter from quarter to quarter when asked about her side’s progression from start to finish.
“That's a bit of our style; we just keep plugging away, plugging away. You don't win it in the first quarter, do you?” she said.
“(The message was) just stay together, just play it out — we don't play to the scoreboard.
“So, irrelevant of what that says, we have things that we need to do out there for each other and just execute.”
Lastly, Lees waxed lyrical about the contribution of Vick, who played her 100th club game for the Murray Bombers.
“She's played over 250 A-grade GV games but it's 100 for Echuca, so it's really nice for her,” she said.
“She's such an incredible part of the Echuca Footy Netball Club, she started her career there, she does everything around the club for us netballers.
“It’s real great reward for a true club person.”
