Tara Murray
Gisborne will back in its young talent to get the job done in the opening week of the Bendigo Netball League finals.
The Bulldogs, who finished third will be missing two key players in the first week of finals.
Jordan Cransberg and Claudia Mawson missed the final round match and will miss this week after being selected in the Victorian Fury team for the Australian Netball Championships.
Bulldogs coach Tarryn Rymer said they were sad that both girls wouldn’t be on court for them, they were excited about getting the opportunity to play at that level.
Speaking before the final round, she said they believed they had the players that could step up.
“They are both losses to the group, but we have girls that can step up and do the job,” she said.
“We’ve had players in and out all season, with COVID and injuries.
“We know our attacking line has the ability without them. Emerson Lakey and Kiralee [Collings] are two young ones that are stepping up.
“Kirby Elliott has moved into centre at times and brought an impact and something different.”
The Bulldogs will take plenty of confidence into finals, after recently knocking off Kangaroo Flat, which will finish in the top two.
Rymer said that performance would give them confidence and was a baseline for what they wanted in finals.
“To get the win against one of the top two teams gives a little bit of self belief, not just because we got the four points, but because it was a really good game of netball,” she said.
“We were able to tie the four quarters together and play some consistent netball. Everyone did their job and all seven girls across the court played well.”
The Bulldogs played Eaglehawk in the final round of the regular season.
Rymer said before the match that they wouldn’t underestimate Eaglehawk.
“This week we’ll play without Claudia and Jordan, so we will look at what we will look like in the first week of the finals.
“We’ll fine tune things and look to work on combinations.”
