The Sunbury Jets are hoping to shape finals having bowed out of contention in the Big V women’s championship competition.
The Jets finals hopes have come to an end after an interrupted back end to the season leaving them just short of a top five spot.
Jets coach Monique Caparello said it had been a really interrupted season.
“We have [Chloe] Angove move to Queensland,” Caparello said. “We’re happy for her to go, but she’s a big part of the team and carried a lot of the team culture.
“Jelly [Jelena Savic] has gone off to college. She’s always had aspirations to go to college. It’s earlier than we had been hoping for.
“We’ve had diminishing numbers.”
While it has been a struggle, Caparello said it had opened doors for others to step up and take on bigger roles.
She said it would only make them better in the future.
“It’s given the likes of add Emily [Achter], Addy Cameron and Ally Stewart more opportunity in the senior program,” she said.
“Ally has really stepped up and has been disruptive in defence.
“She has flourished and provided quality minutes of production off the bench. She had 20 points last week.
“Hopefully give her confidence. She’s had a really impact.
With struggling numbers, Caparello said they had looked to bring up Cara Beattie and Emmie Morin from youth league when they can but didn’t want to impact that side too much.
The Jets youth league team finished on top of the division 2 ladder, earning a bye in the first week of finals.
Caparello said there would be a couple of games they would look back and think what might have been with playing finals.
She said the Sherbrooke game where it went down to the wire or the Pakenham game where they were with one of the top teams until late in the game.
“Those two stop finals being in our own hands even if we win everything for the rest of the year.
“We still want to be competitive in the last three games and dispute some of the teams in the top five.”
Speaking before the weekend’s games against the Hume City Broncos and the Bulleen Boomers, Caparello said they had some plans for the Boomers after making adjustments after their last game against them.
The Jets were able to get the win against the Broncos on Saturday night, winning 71-58.
Victoria Ikenasio top scored with 17 points off the bench.
On Sunday, the Jets lost to the Boomers, 67-61. Tresai McCarver top scored with 22 points.
