Tara Murray
The City West Falcons aren’t hitting the panic button yet despite one of their worst performances in a number of years in the Victorian Netball League championship division.
Facing the Geelong Cougars on Sunday was always going to be a tough ask for the Falcons, without having a less than ideal week leading into the match.
It showed with the understrength Falcons, losing 63-34, against one of the competition favourites.
Falcons coach Marg Lind said they always knew it was going to be tough heading into this week.
“The Samoan and Tongan players left the day after the game against the Blaze for the south Pacific Games in Sydney,” Lind said.
“The five players only got back the night before the game after a pretty big week.
“Then Jane Cook had COVID-19 which was a big blow for us.
“We knew we would be treading water and thought we would be pushing. We were expecting the margin to be within 10 goals though.
“We caved pretty early, which was disappointing.”
In the absence of Cook, Sri Lankan Tharjini Sivalingam came in and played a half having only just arrived in the country.
Lind said despite Sivalingam, who has played for the Falcons previously, being jet lagged she was their best player on court playing two quarters.
She said Sivalingam might play more games with the club this season.
Under-19s player Kiralee Collings stepped up into the championship division to help provide some more run in the mid court, with Lind saying it was a really good effort by her.
Lind said despite two losses in a row, they know it’s not all doom and gloom.
“We copped two of the better teams, so it could be positive as they were maybe games we would have lost anyway.
“We are realistic that it is going to take some time. We’ve got the recipe there, but the meal takes time to cook.
“The Falcons will never lie down. It might end up being a rebuilding year, which we’ve done before.”
There were mixed results for the Falcons across the three grades.
The division 1 side lost 54-45. Lind said they thought they should have won that game, but ran out of legs late.
Like the championship side, the division 1 side is without a win.
The under-19s won 58-44.
“They were 10 down which is a really big margin and they fought back,” Lind said. They are a really good group with a number of really young kids.”
