Macedon is learning on the go in the Riddell District Netball League.
With a new coach and different playing line- up this season, the Cats are still finding their feet.
A first-up win against Broadford was followed by a narrow loss to Rupertswood on Monday-week, before the Cats returned to the winners’ list on Saturday against Melton Centrals.
Leading by one goal at each of the first two breaks, the Cats extended that to three goals at three-quarter time and five goals at full-time.
The final score was 41-36.
Cats coach Ciara Stewart said before Saturday’s game that from a club perspective it had been a good start to the season.
“It’s a really good group of girls,” she said. “We’ve had the two extremes of playing Broadford and then Rupertswood. We’re still learning to adjust to the umpiring and to playing outdoors while also learning the teams and the league.”
Stewart, in her first season with the league, said one of the hardest aspects was being unable to predict who would be playing for the opposition each week.
With the Victorian Netball League running concurrently, many players are missing games due to commitments there.
“I can’t preempt what teams will do each week,” Stewart said. “I don’t know who will play for each team with VNL commitments and who will be on the team sheet.
“That’s the hardest thing, that I don’t know who’s going to play, but it’s the way teams are now. It’s bad luck or good luck whether you play sides with VNL players missing.”
Stewart says she hopes not having VNL players will benefit her side in the long run.
“We’ll look to use the same nine players every week, but you can’t account for injuries.
“We’ll take time to grow, but we’ll be a consistent side. We’re not going to have players come in for one game here or there.
“Due to injury, we’re yet to get the whole nine playing together; it’ll take some time.”
She said the match against Rupertswood was a good test of where they sit compared to some of the top teams.
“It’ll be good to play Rupertswood the second time round; I think we can play better.
“I was happy to go down by five goals with the amount of errors we had.
“Their coach had done her homework and worked on plays to shut down certain players. We were disappointed to let it blow out in a small period of time.”
Elsewhere, Riddell and Rupertswood had massive wins over Broadford and Sunbury respectively. Woodend had its first win of the season, beating Wallan 57-52, while Romsey was too good for Diggers Rest.
