Rumbalara’s Jess Bamblett wasn’t totally satisfied despite her side knocking over Nathalia on Saturday to remain unbeaten.
Photo by
Megan Fisher
Eternal vigilance is the price of supremacy.
Hold tight - we’re checking permissions before loading more content
Rumbalara is currently exercising the maxim, because despite beating Nathalia to become the Murray Netball League’s only unbeaten side, coach Jess Bamblett isn’t busting out the champagne.
Far from it.
Rather, she thinks Saturday’s white knuckling 48-45 win was a reminder that reigning premier Rumba isn’t untouchable.
Nathalia’s Helen Williams stretches to try trap a stray ball.
Photo by
Megan Fisher
Image 2 of 7
Rumbalara’s Sophie Atkinson positions herself to get a shot away.
Photo by
Megan Fisher
Image 3 of 7
Nathalia’s Aimee Sidebottom and Helen Williams high five after a goal.
Photo by
Megan Fisher
Image 4 of 7
Rumbalara’s Sarah Thorpe spots a free pass ahead.
Photo by
Megan Fisher
Image 5 of 7
Nathalia’s Abbey Bell calls for the ball in a pocket of space.
Photo by
Megan Fisher
Image 6 of 7
Nathalia’s Aimee Sidebottom charges towards the action.
Photo by
Megan Fisher
Image 7 of 7
Rumbalara’s Emily Williams gets ready to receive the ball on the fly.
Photo by
Megan Fisher
“I wasn’t happy with our performance but I guess a win’s a win when you get the four points at the end of the game,” she said.
“I think Nathalia defensively came out and rattled our cage a little bit, but the girls bounced back with resilience.
“I think we were down by eight goals at one stage but we ended up coming back from that deficit.
“That’s a tribute to our team effort and team play to bounce back when the wheels were starting to fall off.”
Heading into the match, Rumbalara and host side Nathalia approached with the only pristine 5-0 records in the comp, and one team was about to lose theirs.
During the early sparring, the Purples seemed the likelier to keep the unblemished ledger, rolling out to a narrow one goal lead at quarter time thanks to astute defending and dress-tight pressure.
Rumbalara started to turn the key in the second term, pulling things back to stay ahead by a nose at the half.
Still recovering from the early clamps, Bamblett sat her side down at the main break and settled the nerves.
“I think it was their defensive pressure that was really hard for us to get our flow going when attacking,” she said.
“They’ve got really great defensive pressure and our attackers were a bit shaky, but once we worked out what we were doing - at half-time we addressed what was going on, and we adjusted to what was out there.”
The visitors continued to push and built the advantage to five at three-quarter time, and though Nathalia came out swinging in the final stanza, Rumbalara did just enough to escape with a three goal triump and four points in the bag.
With it being a split round in the MNL, Rumba now has the weekend off to regroup and prepare for another big test in third ranked Mulwala.
“Each team is different, and we’ve just got to adjust to what team we’re playing,” Bamblett said.
“We’ll get back to training (and work on) a couple of plays to mix it up and not stick to the same plan.
“I wasn’t happy with the win because we’ve got high expectations and we all hold each other accountable. Now it’s back to training and see how we go from there.”
In the round’s other games, Mulwala throttled Finley 65-28 while Moama bested Barooga by 20 goals.
14°C