Kyabram’s A-grade netball team will be hoping to use a winning last quarter from Saturday’s fourth-round loss to Shepparton United as a springboard to end its winless start to the 2024 Goulburn Valley League netball season.
The Bombers trailed by 25 goals at three-quarter-time of its match with the Deakin Reserve co-tenant, but outscored its fourth-ranked opponent by 10 goals to eight in a defiant finish to the afternoon.
It’s been a tough draw for the Kyabram team, having now played four of the top six teams to start the year.
This weekend’s Kyabram Recreation Reserve draw with Mansfield, however, is its best chance for a win. Mansfield has won just one of its four games and sits 10th — two spots above Kyabram — on the ladder.
Mansfield beat the only other winless team in the A-grade GVL competition, Benalla, by 10 goals on Saturday to end its own three-week losing streak,
Benalla and Kyabram are the only two teams yet to open their accounts in the competition, the Bombers slow out of the blocks on Saturday when they gave up 28 first-half goals to trail by 15.
Natasha Dodos shot 11 of the Bombers’ 13 first-half goals and finished the match with eight goals in the final term for a total of 22 in the 27-51 defeat.
In a disastrous third term Kyabram managed only four goals and was outscored by 10 before coming home with a wet sail on the back of defensive work from Jemma Hall and Monique Williams — Kyabram’s two best players.
Caitie Minger, who made up the defensive trio on a wing, was the other outstanding player for the Bombers.
• Kyabram’s B-grade team has also had to contend with a draw, pitting it against four of the top six teams in the opening month of competition.
On Saturday it battled gamely in the second half after against sixth-ranked United, trailing by 14 at half-time before a third-quarter surge. In the next three weeks it faces a trio of teams outside the top six — among them this week’s 10th-ranked opponent Mansfield.
Just like in the A-grade contest, Kyabram’s three best players were all in the defensive end and it also had one outstanding quarter.
In the third term Rose Cunningham, Courtney Mason and Ali Hall combined to back up the accuracy of Micaela Herbert in goals (who shot 10 of her team’s 12 goals for the quarter) and Kyabram trailed by 13 with a quarter to play.
Eventually the Bombers lost by 17 goals, 34-51, leaving it and Benalla as the only winless teams this season.
• Twenty goals in an outstanding second half from Abbey Watson has given the B-Reserve team a thrilling one-goal win, its second win of the season after a two-goal loss to Euroa last week.
The victory has set up a four-week stretch where it has three opponents outside the top six. The team sits sixth on the ladder after four weeks.
Kyabram’s 37-36 victory came after it was deadlocked with 11th-ranked United at quarter-time. By half-time the Bombers trailed by five before Watson, who had started in goals with Ella Kiker and shot six goals, swung into action.
She converted all but two of Kyabram’s 22 second-half goals as the Bombers used 10 players in the game to come up with a winning formula.
Watson was joined by Rachel McCormack in goals after half-time and they brought Kyabram to within one goal at the final break. That was after Maddie Hamilton and Stella Trezise came onto the court at half-time, among six changes swung at the final interval.
Trezise worked in tandem with defensive leader Tearna Filbey and mid-court star Laura Papalia to guide the team to the narrowest of wins.
• A three-goal win for the sixth-ranked under-17 team has provided it with the platform to face three teams below it on the ladder in the coming month.
A see-sawing match with United, which sits two spots below the Bombers on the ladder, saw the teams tied at quarter-time before two winning quarters gave Kyabram a five-goal lead at the final change.
Despite being outscored by two goals in that last quarter it was a 43-40 win for the Bombers.
Jemae Miller scored 26 of Kyabram’s goals as she and goaling partner Rose Cunningham combined for a winning tally. The Bombers didn’t make a single change in the win on the back of Ava Pell’s dominance in the centre and captain Stella Trezise’s defensive work.
After losing the opening two rounds to the first- and fourth-ranked teams the Bombers are now on a roll which could continue on the back of excellent form at Deakin Reserve on Saturday.
• Nine players were used by the Bombers in the under-15 game to try and find a winning formula against United, but it was one-way traffic after a promising start.
Kyabram led by one goal at quarter-time on the back of five goals from Ella Hooper and the defensive work of Mia Kilpatrick.The Bombers, buoyed by the first, made no changes at quarter-time and were outscored by 10 in the seceond term.
Five changes at half-time didn’t have the desired effect, although Mia Stockdale worked well with Hooper (19 goals for the game) in the third term and Rachel Polvere was also a star on a wing.
An 11-goal deficit in the third term saw Kyabram eventually lose 24-47 as captain Ruby Baker did her best to try and swing the tide in preparation for a tough month of games when the Bombers face three teams inside the top six.