By Tara Murray
A season of firsts has continued for Rockbank, as its A-grade side moved through to the Riddell District Netball League semi-finals.
For the Rams, making finals was an achievement on its own, the club having never been in that position before.
After finishing sixth, anything else was seen as a bonus.
On Sunday though, they showed that they were a team not to be taken lightly, knocking off Wallan in a thriller.
Wallan entered the match as one of the favourites heading into the finals, but struggled against the Rams pressure.
The Rams led at every break, winning 48-46.
Rams co-captain Rianne Vining was in a state of disbelief after they had pulled off the upset win.
“We’re very excited,” she said.
“We wanted to make finals and we thought we could have finished higher as we lost some games we thought we should have won.
“To just get there was amazing.”
Both sides entered the match not at full strength with the Rams missing Danni Jane Umaki, who is on holidays, and the Magpies missing Zoe Cransberg and Georgia Bowkett, who were both playing Victorian Netball League finals.
Vining said they had been able to control the game early on, before the Magpies hit back at them.
Despite all the late pressure, the Rams never gave up the lead.
“We were up by about seven goals,” she said.
“And they kept plugging it back. They would come back to about one or two goals and then we would get it back to four up.”
Vining said Kari Love was amazing in the goal keeper position, while Rebecca Hicks dominated at the other end.
Hicks shot 41 goals from 49 attempts to be the best shooter on the court.
Having claimed one finals scalp, the Rams are after a second one this week.
They face Rupertswood in a knockout semi-final.
Vining said they believed they could give it a red hot crack.
“We think we can bring it to them,” she said.
“We think that Wallan are a better team and Wallan beat Rupertswood.”
It wasn’t all good news for the Rams, with their C-grade and under-19 teams both knocked out of finals.
Vining said to have three of their four sides in finals was a massive success.
Macedon will play Romsey in the other semi-final, with a grand final spot on the line.
The C-grade team lost to Rupertswood 35-21, while the under-19s lost to Wallan 28-18.
In other A-grade results, Macedon easily accounted for Rupertswood, while Romsey beat an undermanned Riddell 60-25.
For reports on Macedon and Romsey’s wins:
www.starweekly.com.au/sports/macedon-continues-undefeated-run-into-finals/
www.starweekly.com.au/sports/romsey-gets-the-job-done/
