By Justin Flynn
St Albans rallied from nine goals down at three-quarter time to snatch a thrilling tie against St Mary’s in Geelong Netball League A Grade on Saturday June 8.
The Supersaints have been in reasonable form of late, being competitive against top side South Barwon and losing narrowly to Grovedale.
St Albans led by three at quarter time and were down by one at the half. That’s when St Mary’s stepped it up a gear in a brutal third term.
“They just started to get on top of us a bit,” St Albans coach Rebecca Hendriksen said.
“I made a few changes myself that might not have worked. We did a few rolling subs in the third and pulled it back a little bit, I think we were down by 13 at one point.”
However, the Supersaints lifted and immediately went about clawing back the deficit.
“They just believed that they could do it,” Hendriksen said.
“They got around each other at three-quarter time and said ‘we’ve got 15 minutes, we can win this’. It was a really good game, both teams played well.”
With 40 seconds to go and two goals down, St Albans got a rebound and scored and then scored again when they restarted with the ball to share the points. Hendriksen said while it was always disappointing not to win, a tie was a fair result.
“We’re building, it’s taken us a little while and I’m looking forward to the next few games to see where we really sit,” Hendriksen said.
“They’ve got a good vibe about them and they really believe in themselves and they believe that they can win next week (against Leopold).”
Goalkeeper and captain Amy Cook played her first full game in five weeks after an appendix operation and immediately made her presence felt with a superb display.
“It was good to see her back out there,” Hendriksen said.
“She played half a game at Grovedale (the week before) and she came out ready to play on the weekend and was good and led the team well.”
Hendriksen praised the games of midcourter Zoe Saunders and goal defence and former St Mary’s player Emily Kermeen.
“It was probably her (Saunders) best game of the season – really steady through the midcourt. It was just a really good game from her,” she said.
“Emily was great, between her and Amy, they are a good combination and work really well together. Emily works very hard.”
Hendriksen said her side was an easy group to coach and hadn’t given up on finals aspirations despite being three and a half games adrift.
“It’s going to be tough, but we’re out there to play finals,” she said.
“We’ll keep fighting and hope we can make it and if not, we stick together and work towards next year. They’re a good group.”
COLAC consolidated its spot in the five with an ominous 62 to 46 win against Geelong West. Michelle Winch found the net 43 times from 55 attempts.
BELL PARK is on the board after a 49 to 38 win against Grovedale with Emma Hawker tireless at centre and wing attack.
SOUTH BARWON won a high-quality match against Newtown & Chilwell, 67 to 55. Wing attack Tyra Fallon and centre Michelle Svetnik were the architects.
ST JOSEPH’S defeated Lara 53 to 31 with skipper Tori Honner best on court.
