Woodend-Hesket is continuing to build in the Riddell District Netball League.
Searching for their first finals appearance in the A-grade competition, the Hawks continue to tick a number of boxes.
The Hawks sat in second spot with six wins from eight matches.
Hawks coach Meg Grbac said while they were juggling injury concerns across the netball program it had been a really good start.
“It’s been really positive and there’s been a really good vibe at the club, in both netball and football,” she said.
“I’m really pleased with how things are going. We have a lot of injuries across all the grades that we are trying to manage.
“We’ve been trying to fill holes with what we have in the club.”
The Hawks improvement has been on show this season. They recently defeated Diggers Rest for the first time in A-grade, while they pushed ladder leaders Macedon, losing by three goals.
Grbac said it showed the side that they aren’t that far off the top teams.
“We went down to Macedon by only a few goals,” she said. “We didn’t take those opportunities that we needed to take.
“All due respect to Macedon, they are a good team and it was a tough match. It drives us to get better and we take away what we can learn from the things we did.”
Grbac said they were still trying to get the right combinations and rotations in the A-grade side.
One area they are still working on is the goaling end.
Recruit Abby Gilmore tore her achilles in the early part of the season.
“Losing Abby was a big blow for the team on and off the court,” Grbac said. “She is still around the club on the sidelines.
“We did have the luxury of having three goalers at the start of the season.
“Charlee Duff-Tyler has stepped up into the role as a 15-year-old. We have had Laura [Carland] our midcourter switch across into there at times to see different combinations and experience with what we can do.”
Grbac said for the A-grade team, they would be disappointed not to play finals this year.
While she has one eye on finals, Grbac is also looking at the bigger picture.
“We want to continue to grow the depth across all the grades,” she said.
“A-grade is doing well, but we want to make sure the other teams are and we focus on the whole netball squad.
“There’s a lot of positives across the board.”
