Perhaps Geelong Amateur’s defeat to Ocean Grove in round 7 was the loss it had to have.
For the past two seasons, Ammos have gone unbeaten until the grand final, where they lost both times to Ocean Grove.
But defeat to the Grubbers on May 24 has probably eased the pressure this time around rather than added to it.
Ammos certainly showed no signs of the loss in round 8 when they easily accounted for Portarlington by 25 goals on Saturday May 31.
First-year coach Kaitlyn Sheringham was pleased with her team’s response.
“I think it was really important just to get the girls’ confidence back up and knowing what we can put out on court and our real focus was defensive pressure (against Port),” she said.
“And I thought we brought it, which was great to see and it was really good that what we implemented at training came across on game day, so we were really happy with the response and how the girls went about it.”
Sheringham wouldn’t be drawn on saying whether the loss to Grove was something that might benefit her team in the long run.
“It’s just a matter of us learning to stick to our game plan and to stick to what we know, but yeah, there was lots of learnings that came out of that game,” she said.
“It was nice to be able to go back and watch it and really pick up on some things that we can improve on and hopefully next time we play (them) we can implement those things and it’ll be a bit of a tighter tussle.
“The girls were quite disappointed with the loss, but sometimes it’s a good thing just to get that fire in the belly and want to get back out there and give it another go.”
Sheringham said Ocean Grove wasn’t the only team to be challengers this season.
“There’s some other teams like Queenscliff and Newcomb that I think are a bit underrated at the moment,” she said.
“It’ll be a tight top four, top five. It’ll be good coming into finals and the back end of the season. I think we’ve got a few tough games leading into finals, which is a good thing, too.”
Sheringham said there was no rush to get injured goaler Kim Hammond back into the team. It will only happen when she is fully recovered from an injured knee, which has kept her out since the early rounds.
“It’s a bit of a waiting game, just week by week,” she said.
“She’s doing all the right things and the physio’s ticked her off and she’s really keen to get back out there. It’s just letting it heal and hopefully within the next few weeks I’d love to see her out there. We’ll keep her in cotton wool until she’s ready to go and then get her back out there.”
Ammos travel to Anglesea this weekend and Sheringham said if her team’s defensive pressure is as good as it was against Portarlington, it would stand them in good stead.
“On Saturday, our defensive pressure was great and our conversion rate as well,” she said.
“So from those turnovers, we were able to score off them, which was really great to see. We’re just building on that each week and those little one percenters.
“We just want to build each week and get better and hopefully hit our straps coming into the back end of the season.”
JESSE Sutton played her 150th senior game for Ocean Grove and was brought into the A Grade line-up to cover for the missing Zanna Woods (injured) and Ashton O’Brien (unavailable). Sutton scored 18 goals from 23 attempts at goal attack to help the Grubbers to a 56 to 37 win against Drysdale.
NEWCOMB’S goal pairing of Carly Sanders (31 goals) and Sian Mortlock (23) combined to give their side a 54 to 40 win against Barwon Heads.
QUEENSCLIFF came away with a 60 to 50 win against a dogged Torquay with Kaitlin Gladman again in the best.
ANGLESEA had to work against a determined Modewarre to triumph 55 to 34 with Ariana Luamanu and Jessica Crocker dangerous in goal.
