Tara Murray
Macedon might be on top of the ladder in the Riddell District Netball League, but is facing a challenge they haven’t had in years.
A number of injuries and unavailability has meant the Cats have had to look to other players to step up and help them get across the line.
Cats coach Ciara Stewart said it had been an interesting few weeks for them.
“The Lancefield game Hetty [Donoghue] went down with an ankle injury,” she said.
“I didn’t get to play the Melton game and wasn’t meant to play the Woodend game due to an calf injury. I played as our fill in goaler was sick and made my calf worse.
“Alex [August-Leifi] has been away and Eliza [Petherick] B-grade shooter has hurt her groin. Then against Woodend, Janelle [Birch] hurt her knee in the last quarter.”
Stewart said with missing so many players they were going into games they would normally believe they would win, not sure how they would go.
“Against Woodend we had three or four of our normal players and Janelle got injured,” she said.
“We had conceded that we possibly wouldn’t have won the game, so we were happy where we were after three quarters.
“If we would have lost with our full team we would have been devastated. Against the Western Rams, we weren’t sure again.
“We had three B-graders and Hayley Birth had been sick all week.”
Stewart said this was the first time in her time at the club, they’d had the extent of injuries at one time.
She said they were looking at the season differently and hoped it would pay off at the end of the season.
“The early wins on the board are important, but they aren’t what matter in the end,” she said.
“This period will not make or break our season. We’ve gone through undefeated and got knocked out in finals, early wins don’t matter in the end.
“I was desperate to play against the Western Rams, but it wasn’t worth it in the long term picture.”
The Cats had the weekend off with the King’s Birthday weekend. This week they face Romsey this week and then have the bye.
Stewart said the couple of weeks off couldn’t have come at a better time to allow them to start getting players back.
She said August-Leifi would be back this week, while she was also hoping to be back from her calf injury.
Donoghue, has been given the positive news her injury isn’t season ending and will likely be back in four to five weeks.
Stewart said Birch’s scans had cleared her an ACL injury, but they were unsure when she would be back.
“I’m really happy considering how it is going,” she said.
“Once we get our players back we will be right and we are looking forward to it.”
