Since crossing to Girgarre from Merrigum, Allana Adams has worked in tandem with Abigail Sergienko to set up the Kangaroos for a tilt at a top-two finish this season.
Photo by
Ray Sizer
Girgarre is on track to steal the Kyabram District League’s A-grade netball double chance away from Shepparton East if results go as expected in the final five rounds of the home-and-away competition.
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On the back of a 14-goal opening term by star goaler Jacqui Gahan against Dookie United on Saturday, the team built an eight-goal quarter-time lead and held off the fast-finishing sixth-ranked team to win 53-50.
The three-goal win has the Kangaroos sitting third, equal on points (nine wins from 11 rounds) with second-ranked Shepparton East as the finals come into focus.
Both teams still sit two wins behind unbeaten Lancaster, but only three per cent separates the Kangaroos and the Eagles.
Shepparton East faces Lancaster in the final home-and-away match of the 2024 season, which may decide where the Kangaroos finish on the ladder.
At Dookie on Saturday, the early Kangaroos lead was cut in half at half-time, but by the final change Girgarre led by six goals.
Dookie’s Maddison Owen finished with 37 of her team’s 50 goals, matching the efforts of Gahan at the opposite end. Gahan worked with Darcie Stammers for all but a brief time in the third term and finished with 40 goals for the game.
Girgarre’s defensive unit of Abigail Sergienko, Allana Adams and Elizabeth Pangrazio remained unchanged until the final term when Teah Ryan was moved from wing attack to defence to finish the game.
The Kangaroos face seventh-ranked Avenel, then have two of the bottom four teams (12th-ranked Undera and Rushworth, 14th) in the last month.
• Lancaster was missing stars from either end of the court in its game with finals aspirant Avenel on Saturday, but never faltered in collecting its 11th successive win of the season.
Chicquita Vick continued to add to her highlight reel, with 20 first-half goals followed by 28 in the final half to finish just two shy of another half-century haul.
Lancaster led by six, then 10, and by three-quarter time had stretched the advantage to 18. The Wombats eventually won 60-34, despite not having athletic defender Phillipa Inglis or goaler Alyssa Trebilcock in the squad.
Millie Hill worked with the versatile Zoe Hayes in defence, while Jadeja Davies played almost three quarters at wing defence to add to the back end strength.
Jadeja Davies worked in tandem with Millie Hill and Zoe Hayes in defence to give Lancaster its 11th successive win of the season. Photo: Rechelle Zammit
Photo by
Rechelle Zammit
Lancaster doubled the output of its opponent in the second half, preparing for games against the 12th and ninth-ranked teams in the next fortnight.
It does, however, face three testing games to finish the season — Nagambie (fourth), Stanhope (one win outside the top six in eighth) and Shepparton East (second).
• Stanhope won a thrilling game with 11th-placed Murchison-Toolamba by one goal in the Indigenous round game between middle-of-the-road teams.
Jemma Marie-Wright shot 10 goals in the opening term as Stanhope led by five at the first break, only to have that lead cut to two by half-time.
Murchison-Toolamba controlled the third term and led by two at the final change. A low scoring final term saw only 15 goals scored, with Stanhope scoring nine of those for a 41-40 win.
Stanhope made few changes to its line-up, with Marie-Wright and Jinaya Nurse in goals for the entire game and the Erin Hopkins-Taylor Sutton defence unchanged throughout.
The Lions now sit one game behind the teams ranked fourth to sixth on the ladder with five rounds remaining. They play Murchison-Toolamba again in a fortnight, but have Lancaster (first) and Girgarre (third) in the final two games.
• Merrigum lost its game with ninth-ranked Tallygaroopna by 21 goals.
Merrigum was only four goals behind at quarter-time before the Redlegs took control.
The second and third terms produced a 22-8 scoreline and the Bulldogs eventually lost the game 22-43, using nine players in its squad in an attempt to find the right formula for victory.
