With its most successful season in four years under its belt, Waubra is now looking to make an impact in the Central Highlands Netball League A-grade finals.
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The Kangaroos missed out on a top four spot and a double chance by just four points, but player-coach Hana Baker said their position in the past few rounds had been a nice change to previous seasons when the team had been reliant on other results to scrape into finals.
“Our place in the eight was pretty solid,” Baker said. “It was a nice place to be, to be confident that we did enough throughout the season that those things didn’t matter.”
Waubra is set to face the seventh-placed Ballan in an elimination final at Dunnstown on Saturday.
“We know they’re going to be strong,” Baker said.
“They’re traditionally a team that don’t give up – they just throw everything at it, are really tough and play really physical games.
“When we come in it just means we have got to play our own style of netball and just focus on ourselves.
“That’s all we can do, put together our best game, play the way we know we like to play and try set the tone rather than letting them do that.”
Captain Jane Douglass said following a midseason lapse, the players had returned to what they knew worked to get back on track.
Now, after toppling teams higher on the ladder and dropping some games they should have won against lower sides, Douglass said her teammates had the belief they belonged with the top and would carry that into the game against Ballan.
“It’s the strongest team we’ve had in a while,” Douglass said. “So we’re hoping for the best and knowing that we do have a stronger side, it’s always positive and always exciting going into finals.”
Meanwhile, Buninyong’s A-grade squad faces the undefeated Learmonth in a qualifying final on Saturday.
Bombers coach Meg Gilbert said the team had been working on some key areas of its game in the final rounds of the season in the lead up to its finals campaign, including looking after the ball and being patient in attack.
“We’ve improved over the course of the season,” she said. “We know last time we played Learmonth, the result wasn’t in our favour.
“There were a couple of areas where they just beat us 100 per cent and we will be trying to rectify that this week and hopefully change the outcome this time around.”
Gilbert described securing a top four position and the double chance as very important for the group, believing it would give her players some piece of mind.
“Everyone plays to make the finals,” she said.
“We’re really excited to be there this year and just hope that we can make it deep.”
Meanwhile, the last time Bungaree and Springbank met, they competed in a thriller that ended in a draw.
The Demons and the Tigers have been neck and neck in second and third positions on the ladder respectively for most of the season with only percentage separating the sides.
Meeting in a qualifying final on Saturday in Buninyong, a winner and loser this time around is guaranteed – although a top four spot means a second chance.
And Dunnstown and Hepburn meet in an elimination final in Waubra after the Burras scraped into the top eight with a draw.
The Towners were dominant in the teams’ previous meeting, but the Burras have stormed home in the final rounds of the season, only defeated once in the previous nine rounds.
