By Tara Murray
Gisborne will be hoping to step up on the netball court this week after a disappointing qualifying loss to Kangaroo Flat in the Bendigo Netball League.
For a half the match, it was a thriller with scores locked at 23 apiece at half time. After the main break, the Bulldogs came out flat.
They were made to pay, with Kangaroo Flat winning 50-35.
Bulldogs captain Maddy Stewart said it was a disappointing way to finish off the game.
“I thought we were good in the first half,” she said.
“We made a couple of mistakes, we should have been up at half time.
“We then played into their arms and played their game.
“They really smothered us in defence and we didn’t know how to work our way through it.
“We had come from behind earlier in the season, but it was disappointing that we didn’t think our way through it this time.
“We allowed them to play free flowing attack and were strong in defence.”
After a poor third quarter, the Bulldogs were again under par in the last quarter.
Play was halted for 10 minutes when Kangaroo Flat’s Kate Burton went down with a nasty broken ankle.
Kangaroo Flat scored 8-1 after that point of the game.
Stewart said the needed to work on how they come out of breaks.
She said it was really defensive game, with no one having a great game for her side.
Keara Fitzgerald and Tiana Newman were the best in the performance.
Gisborne though have a second chance and face Eaglehawk on Sunday, having had the double chance.
Stewart said they have to find some of their early season form if they are to progress any further into finals.
“We worked hard fo the double chance,” he said.
“We played some good games, but we haven’t played the best in the last couple of weeks.
“We’ll work hard to get consistency. We could punish teams at times, but we let them back in and go away from our free flowing netball.
“We need to fix things on the court and not wait until the breaks.”
