Macedon was just happy to put out a good performance and see what happened in the Riddell District Netball League preliminary final.
All season the Riddell and Rupertswood rivalry had been spoken about, and despite Macedon beating the Sharks late in the season, it was expected the Sharks would win and set up a grand final match with the Bombers.
Macedon though, had different ideas. Not only did they put out the performance they were after, they also secured a grand final spot.
They now face Riddell in a rematch of last year’s grand final.
It was the Cats who started the better of the two sides on Saturday, leading by four goals at quarter-time.
They doubled the lead at half-time and looked in control, but the Sharks hit back in the third to bring the margin back to five at the last break. Despite looking the fresher, the Sharks couldn’t close the gap, the Cats extending their lead to 53-44 to seal a grand final berth. Their coach, Ciara Stewart, in her first year at the helm, said the season had exceeded all expectations.
Despite reaching last year’s grand final, the Cats fielded an almost completely different line-up this year. Stewart said they had looked to use this year as the start of something to build on.
As for Saturday’s match, Stewart said the main aim was to not let Rupertswood have one big quarter, which they had let the top sides do during the season to get back into games.
“Rupertswood weren’t their usual selves,” she said. “They had a couple of big outs and we knew that was something we could expose.
“We knew we couldn’t slip up and let them get on top, but we couldn’t shake them off. We didn’t panic and we took some risks that were planned and worth trying.”
The Cats used just eight players as they looked to stick with what was working and it paid off as the Sharks rotated their bench to find the right match-ups.
Stewart was named best on court, with Madeleine Huggins in wing defence providing plenty of pressure in midcourt. Chloe Wilson shot 28 goals, with Tara Burnip scoring 25.
For the Sharks, Natalie Billings scored 30 goals, with Sidonie Moore judged their best player.
The Cats now face the Bombers, who defeated them by nine goals in the qualifying final.
The Bombers won the only match-up between the teams in the regular season, by just one goal.
Stewart said they would throw everything at the Bombers. “We only dropped one quarter against them last time. We have a little bit more up our sleeve and have quite a few line-ups. We know that we need to stop Bec [Colwell] from getting the ball a lot quicker than we did.”
The Cats will have two sides in the grand final, with their under-19s winning against Riddell in overtime.
