Tiger teens through to next round

Fresh leg rotations from the bench in the third and fourth quarters were pivotal and saw the young Tigers push out their lead to three and finally 10 by the final siren.

Grace Moyle and Kaylah Moon paired beautifully in defence, picking off passes into the opposition goal ring and providing ample opportunities for their side to capitalise.

Payton Tiller and Marli Cottam proved that goals win games, shooting accurately and providing great direction to their teammates.

Mid-court players Maddy Pearse, Maddie Howard, Sophie Joyce, Matilda Anderson, Charlize Weeks, Imogen Kath and Justice Powles all played an important role, making strong leads, taking strong passes and attacking the ball at every opportunity.

They will next play Shepparton Swans, who lost their first game of the season on the weekend, in a must-win match.

Rochester 32 defeated Mooroopna 22. Best players: Grace Moyle, Kaylah Moon and Payton Tiller.

∎ Rochester and Shepparton Swans 17 & Under teams could not be better matched heading into this elimination final.

They had played each other twice during the home and away season with Shepparton Swans winning by one goal in Round six and Rochester exacting revenge and winning by one goal in Round 17.

In this do-or-die match, the Rochester girls knew they had to play smart, disciplined netball to get themselves into the next round of finals.

It was a tight first quarter with every ball being hotly contested. Defensive pressure was felt all over the court and finals intensity was evident.

Kaitlyn Joyce and Alannah Weeks dug deep and worked over time to steady the ball through the midcourt, putting their bodies on the line to win some crucial contests.

The young Tigers went into the first break, trailing by a goal.

In the second quarter, the Tigers’ shooters found their range. Leila Palmer was strong in goal shooter, holding space and creating play whilst Charlotte Gould perfectly timed her drives into the ring.

The attacking end combined perfectly with Alannah Weeks and Kaitlyn Joyce placing the ball perfectly for the shooters to keep the score board ticking over.

There was little that the Swans defenders could do. Going into the main break, Rochester had wrestled the lead to be up by four goals.

The Tigers knew that the premiership quarter was going to be massive for them, the history of games between these teams proved that no lead was “safe”.

Poppy Palmer and Ava Cottam responded to the call of their coach, Kristy Roulston and produced one of the best defensive quarters a team could hope for.

The Swans attackers were unable to move the ball freely and when they did, they were often met with a clean intercept.

Alex Ingram provided strong over hands pressure to further add to the Swans’ headaches and moved beautifully to help move the ball from defence into attack for the tigers.

The Tigers managed to keep the Swans to four goals while they added 13 goals to put themselves in the box seat to claim a big victory.

Leading by 13 goals going into the last quarter, the Tigers maintained their brand of netball — creating defensive pressure and showing patience in attack. With the fresh legs of Tara Atley coming on into the Tigers defensive end, there was nothing the Swans could do. The Tigers came out winners by 10 goals. They will play arch-rival Echuca in the next round of finals.

Rochester 42 defeated Shepparton Swans 32. Best players: Poppy Palmer, Leila Palmer and Alannah Weeks.