By Justin Flynn
Geelong Amateur coach Mel Savage is not buying into the hype surrounding her unbeaten side’s clash against Ocean Grove.
Grove’s only loss this season came at the hands of Ammos in round 6 and they meet again at Steeline Ray Menzies Oval on Saturday.
“I just kind of see it as another fixture to be totally honest,” Savage said.
“I know everybody wants to hype it up, but it’s just another team that we have to face and compete well against.”
Ammos finished on top of the ladder last season before falling to the Grubbers in the grand final so winning the minor premiership this season is not at the forefront of Savage’s mind. In fact it rates very low on the scale.
“None at all,” she said when asked how much importance she placed on going through the season unbeaten.
“The importance that we have internally is making sure that we are consistent. We follow our game plan and we execute the processes that we have internally for our team.
“We have a lot of our own team goals that we like to hit. And that’s more important than the result. And for us it’s so cliche, but it literally is another game.”
Ocean Grove would still need a lot to go its way to replace Ammos at the top of the table even if it wins this week. Ammos have a superior percentage and would have to drop another game between now and finals.
Savage didn’t completely downplay the game, though.
“When you’ve got a top of the table clash you want to perform well against the better teams, so this is a really good challenge for us,” she said.
“We’ve had an exceptional season, we’ve played some excellent netball over the last month and a bit in particular (and) we’ve really started to hit our stride and this is a great test of where we are at. So for us to have a really good hit out will be fantastic.”
While both teams tomorrow have star goal shooters in Ruby Watson (Geelong Amateur) and Bec O’Neill (Ocean Grove), Amateur’s defensive game has stood up this season.
“We are keeping teams to very few goals, our full court defensive effort in the last four or five weeks has been exceptional and has been a real focus for us,” Savage said.
“I think we have one of the best defensive units in the league and I think it’s reflected in the number of goals against us.”
