The Roos disposed of Beaufort in an A-grade clash in Waubra on Saturday to continue a five-game winning streak, with their only losses coming against the top two undefeated teams, Learmonth and Bungaree.

Waubra player-coach Hana Baker said the players came out strongly producing a solid start for the round nine fixture and improved throughout the game. 

“We were in control for most of the match, we played a particularly strong defensive game,” she said.

“We got a lot of the ball and gave our shooters a lot of opportunity.”

Despite a slow start in the attacking end, Waubra started to shoot well and make the most of opportunities from turnovers late in the second term.

“I think because defensively right across the court we just put on so much pressure and gave the girls so many opportunities, they finally found their groove and sort of got rolling as the game went,” Baker said.

Defenders Caitlyn Murphy and Caitlin Barker were solid for four quarters, while Bethany van Rossum coming off the bench in the second term changed the game.

“She just had a huge impact as soon as she came on, just shooting really, really well and was what sort of turned it around up the attacking end for us,” Baker said.

With games against Hepburn and Springbank next, Baker is expecting her team to be pushed.

“It is really important for us to play our own style of netball and remember the things that we do well and the things we’ve been working on at training,” she said.

“We just need to make sure we don’t get sidetracked by anything going on with our opposition and just really focus on our netball and what we can do.”

Rather than trying to scrape into finals as in previous years, Baker said the position Waubra had put itself in at the halfway point of the season meant the team could now challenge for a top four finish.

“We’ve come up against some teams we thought were going to push us or probably expected to beat us and we’ve been able to beat them,” Baker said.

“It’s a real change with all the work we’ve done and I know the girls are really happy and really excited with all their hard work paying off.”