Nathalia's Helen Williams was on fire under the ring against Numurkah.
Photo by
Rechelle Zammit
“Hurry up, let’s get to the business end.”
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Those words, all fire and brimstone, belong to Nathalia coach Tracey Brereton, who simply cannot wait for the pointy end of Murray Netball League to arrive.
And with the form her Purples are in, who can blame her.
Nathalia got one over the old foe on Saturday, toppling Numurkah 57-38 on the Blues’ home court to build an eight-point lead in second and trail leading side Rumbalara by one win.
The Purples’ only loss of the season came at the hands of Rumba, a three-goal defeat in round six and, outside of that, it’s been all smiles in Brereton’s camp.
Numurkah's Abby Commadeur receiving the ball in the attacking end.
Photo by
Rechelle Zammit
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Nathalia's Ashlee Cann fires the ball out of defence.
Photo by
Rechelle Zammit
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Numurkah's Jemmah Ryan and Nathalia's Olivia McDonald.
Photo by
Rechelle Zammit
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Nathalia's Laura Cole searches for an open Purple dress.
Photo by
Rechelle Zammit
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Numurkah's Amy Brooks winds up a chest pass.
Photo by
Rechelle Zammit
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Nathalia's Helen Williams calls for the ball to be launched into her airspace.
Photo by
Rechelle Zammit
A determined and dogged Numurkah stayed side by side with Nathalia for the first quarter, but once the Purples got off the chain, there was no stopping them.
“It started off like a house on fire, but we sort of let them back in a bit in that first quarter,” Brereton said.
“But we responded in the second quarter — I think we had a 19-7 score line — which set us up for the game.
“We knew coming into playing Numurkah, they’re only six points off third-placed Mulwala, so they’re going to come out and have a crack because they’re still a chance to move up the ladder.”
An experienced Nathalia unit, going up against a Blues side that had only lost once in its past eight games, was always going to throw up an intriguing contest.
That was evident from the first whistle and, by the time it sounded again for quarter-time with the scoreline reading 15-12 in Nathalia’s favour, there was no telling which way the game would swing.
Then the Purples hit the reset button.
Out came a much more tempered and focused Nathalia side and, by the half, its narrow three-goal lead had ballooned out to 15.
“We were just being a bit cleaner with the ball and smarter in attack,” Brereton said.
“Our defenders turned over a heap of clean ball, so it was just a combination of going back to basics, getting them right and then converting off what we had.”
Nathalia never let Numurkah back into the game from that point on and, despite a slightly slower third quarter on the scoring front, an end to end final stanza resulted in a fairly comfortable 19-goal victory.
Brereton singled out Helen Williams’ 36-goal game as a standout, while also lauding the defensive efforts of Ashlee Cann and Tegan Sutton in the win.
Nathalia has been quietly building for a few years now and with the fruits of labour finally starting to blossom, the experienced Purples leader is looking back at the two thirds of the season with pride as well as an eagerness to make a deep finals run.
“(The season has) tracked well; when you put together a team at the start of the year, you’re excited, anxious, about what can it produce,” she said.
“And then you get injuries, pregnancies along the way — that’s just how it works in women’s sport.
“When I think back to March, you think ‘wow, it’s exciting to see we’re sitting where we are’.
“Now it’s like hurry up, let’s get to the business end.”
Elsewhere, Congupna defeated Finley by 13 goals, Tongala torched Barooga by 32 and Mulwala similarly pulled away late to win by nine over Deniliquin.
Rumbalara strolled past Moama 70-43 in a grand final rematch, while Echuca United had the better of Cobram 55-30.
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