THE Ballarat Sovereigns will be more determined than ever to register their first win of the Victorian Netball League season when they come up against the Yarra Valley Grammar Ariels on Wednesday after suffering two narrow losses in as many weeks.
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The new-look Sovereigns recruited heavily in the off season, landing two former Trans-Tasman Championship players in Janelle Lawson and Alicia Janz as well as a swathe of other successful state league players.
Laura McDonald is the only player from the Sovereigns’ 2015 championship division side who remains in the top grade, after the side’s 2015 incarnation managed to win just one match.
While the side has shown gradual improvement over the course of the season, periods of inconsistency have cost the Sovereigns dearly.
The Ballarat outfit fought gallantly in their round five encounter with the favoured Geelong Cougars on the road, and managed to claw back an 11 goal third term deficit to lose by just three points.
However in the Sovereigns most recent fixture against the Peninsula Waves a third term collapse caused the Ballarat side to hand over a two goal first quarter advantage to lose by seven goals.
Sovereigns president Bill Mundy said while the two tight losses were disappointing, the side had shown enormous development over the first third of the season.
“The critical thing for us is we have a very young group with four girls who are under 19 and its an ongoing task for us to get the team to gel,” Mundy said. “We’re certainly in a much better place than last year even though we're not winning games yet.”
The match up against the Ariels presents the Sovereigns with their most winnable fixture so far this season. While the Ariels got the better of the Ballarat outfit in their 2015 match, both sides sit at the bottom of VNL ladder, yet to register a win.
The two sides finished tenth and ninth on the 10-side VNL ladder in 2015, but the Ariels managed to record six wins for the season compared to the Sovereigns’ sole success.
Perhaps just as important as the potential four points in Wednesday night’s encounter will be the confidence generated ahead of one of just two home games for the Sovereigns for the season against reigning premier the Boroondara Express in a fortnight.
While a victory may be a tall order against one of the form sides of the league, a competitive encounter will be crucial for helping to generate a strong support base for the relatively young club.
“It’s not lost on us that the opportunity for us to develop support through building a winning culture needs to be developed at home games,” Mundy said.
