By Justin Flynn
St Albans coach Alex Tortora will depart from the role at the end of this season, but believes the next in line will take charge of a “sleeping giant”.
The Supersaints won their first game of the season on Saturday July 27, defeating Newtown & Chilwell by 10 points.
St Albans led by 30 points at the last break before the Eagles hit back in the final term, but the damage had been done.
“We’ve got so much support around us, not just from a playing perspective, but we have a lot of people who come back to the club that support the club whether they’re past players or just people that have been volunteering in the past,” Tortora said.
“I’ve said it for a while, we’re a sleeping giant and when that giant awakens, I think they’re going to be a beast in the competition. I think it’s a matter of time now to be honest.”
While the Supersaints may be languishing at the foot of the ladder with one win and a percentage of 26.44, Saturday’s win has been coming for a while after a string of good performances, including a seven-point loss to Lara.
“It’s just so nice as a coach to see your players so happy and obviously so many people around the club as well and their family and friends and our younger players, our juniors, our netball, just the whole club,” Tortora said.
“Just to see some smiling faces and happy people, that’s the best part of it.”
While there were a couple of anxious moments in the final term, Tortora said his side was able to steady and get the job done.
“All of a sudden we started to tire and then space started to open up and to their (Newtown & Chilwell) credit they finished the game pretty strongly,” he said.
“Obviously we’d done enough by that stage so I was really pleased with the players. They finally played the footy that I’ve known that they can play for a long time.
“We don’t often talk about winning as such or the outcome. It’s more about the way we want to play. And I guess the big cliche, we just try to stick to our game plan and our processes.”
