Tigers heading in the right direction

Jessica Mangan is back again. (Shawn Smits)

Tara Murray

Kyneton is starting to build after a tough start to the Bendigo Netball League season.

The Tigers have won one of their first five matches, having drawn several of the contenders early on.

Tigers netball director Loryn Savoia said they knew it was always going to be a challenging start to the season.

“It has been a tough start,” she said. “We knew we had to be realistic, drawing some of the top sides in most of the games.

“The A-grade squad is starting to come together. We had some players away the first few weeks and we were finding our netball legs.”

Savoia said the side was getting better each week. Majority of the group has been at the club for a number of years.

She said while they hadn’t put expectations on the sides, they would love to see the A-grade and A-reserve sides making finals.

Savoia said having Di Guest-Oakley back as A-grade coach had been good for the club.

“Di brought a few players with her,” she said.

“There were a few younger players slotting in nicely.”

Savoia said the other grades were starting to build, with plenty of young talent coming through the ranks.

She said while the results were important this season, it was about continuing to improve the program and its long term future after a rocky few years.

She said they were happy with how things were tracking.

“It’s a massive achievement to have a full field of five grades for two years in a row,” she said.

“We have five coaches and five teams is a massive step in the right direction.

“We have some junior talent coming through the ranks. You can only expect the senior players to play for so long, if you don’t have the junior talent coming through, you’ll never be able to grow.

“That is our focus, but there’s still a lot of work to do.”