Tara Murray
Woodend-Hesket is keeping things as normal as possible ahead of the Riddell District Netball League finals.
The Hawks had the bye in the final round and having already secured the minor premierships which means they will also have the first week of finals off.
Hawks coach Ty Coppinger said they weren’t taking anything for granted at this stage of the season.
“I think with the competition being as close as it is, it’s fantastic to finish there,” she said. “But we know that the competition has been really close this year so we’ve still got plenty of work to come the next few weeks in finals.”
Coppinger said they take the situation they’re in with two weeks without matches.
She said it doesn’t mean that the hard work will stop.
“We’ll just try and keep relatively the same routine,” she said. “Rather than have that time off.
“Just make sure that we keep the same routine getting the girls together. Not much really changes to be honest.”
After a slow start the reigning premiers have built into the season. The side struggled to get their full team together for most of the season.
Coppinger said that had come together the last three weeks.
She said they had been able to refine a few things and started to put some better performances together.
“It has been really nice to get everyone there on the same day,” she said. “Also just to be able to run a bunch of different combinations and see how all of those work, which has been nice.
“We’ve got a lot of versatility amongst all the girls and everyone is just happy to be there and be together, I’m very lucky from that perspective.”
Coppinger said the group was always focusing on what was next to ensure they stayed switched on.
The Hawks bring a similar line up into finals as what they had last year when they broke through for their first premiership.
Many of the other sides in finals have different sides to what they had last season and are playing finals together for the first time.
Coppinger said it does help having the existing connection.
“The connection we have as players on the court, but also being a group that has been together off the court, does hold us in good stead,” she said.
“When the going does get tough and in finals sometimes you don’t know what to expect I would hope that bond that we kind of have and the connections we’ve built over the last 12 months, two years, is really going to help us the next few weeks.”
It’s been a good season for the Hawks with all five netball teams to play finals.
Coppinger said it was a massive achievement for the club.
