It might have been on the receiving end of a 22-goal defeat, but Shepparton United heads into this weekend’s clash against Shepparton Swans with plenty of positivity behind it according to A-grade coach Jeanette Serra.
The Dees stumbled in the opening round against arch-rival Shepparton as the Bears debuted a star-studded line-up, consisting of VNL goaler Jane Cook, that caught the eye of many Goulburn Valley League followers.
United may have failed in banking the four points against the Bears, but the side’s ability to score more than 50 goals pleased Serra.
“We enter this week pretty positive. We know we’re coming off a loss, but the Bears’ midcourt was excellent and their attack was pretty unstoppable,” Serra said.
“If we look at our game and don’t focus on the Bears, I was really happy with how many goals we scored and we’ll look to build on that this week.”
United has brought in its own VNL talent with goaler Hayley Howard forming an attacking ring combination with Georgia Walpole.
Howard was impressive with her 42 goals scored in round one.
Serra revealed emerging teenager Diaz Barzen would see valuable court time this week as the first-year coach looks to give the juniors court time.
Serra called on Laura Cole to perform strongly, with the star talent running the midcourt for the Dees in the centre position.
For the Swans, they were unable to stick with Mooroopna for the four quarters in round one and went down by 10 goals.
There will be extra motivation for two Swans on Saturday afternoon.
Tayla Clohesy and Sophie Garner return to the home court of their old club after the duo switched to Princess Park in the off-season.
Serra expected some of the pair’s old teammates would lean on their past involvement to help give them the edge.
“It’s good in a way because the girls know their (Garner and Clohesy) style and how they play, so we’ll be looking to neutralise them and make sure they don’t have much of an impact,” she said.
Meanwhile, Mooroopna will play host to Shepparton in one of the games of the round.
The Cats will be sweating on the availability of captain and gun defender Maddison Wong — who is racing back to full fitness after surgery removing her wisdom teeth.
Without their key defender the Cats will be vulnerable to the Bears’ classy attacking end.
“We were a bit rusty which is to be expected in the first hit-out,” Mooroopna coach Di Hanslow said of last week’s win over the Swans.
“We know we need to build on that which is the challenge for this week.
“Obviously Bears have got a dangerous attacking line-up and it will be a challenge for our girls. We need to focus on scoring at our end and stop them from feeding their goaler.”