Rockbank had to fight for all 60 minutes to seal victory against Lancefield in the Riddell District Netball League.
The Rams entered the game as favourites, but that meant little on the court as the Tigers took it up to them.
The Tigers led for much of the match, with the Rams leaving it late to take control. That late spurt was enough for the Rams to get a 46-42 win.
Rams coach Nathan Selvidge said it wasn’t their best game, but he was happy to come away with the win.
“Those are the hard games that you are expecting to win, but can drop quite easily,” he said. “They put up a good fight and we’re just hoping we can build from this against the harder teams.
“We made a lot of mistakes in that first half especially. We can build on that and work forward together as a team.”
The Rams had to dig deep, with Selvidge going to his bench on several occasions.
Ashlee Bertocci came on early in the first quarter, while Ruiana Magatogia and Maddison Taylor-Stewart came on early in the second half.
The Rams then made changes midway through the last quarter, including bringing on Rebecca McCubbin into goals.
“We made a couple of changes at half-time, and they really made a difference,” Selvidge said.
He said goal shooter Jess Christie hurt her knee during the week and he knew McCubbin could shoot.
“I thought I would chuck it out there and see what happened,” he said.
Selvidge said that even this early in the season, they were showing that they had plenty of options in both A-grade and B-grade sides.
PHOTO GALLERY: Lancefield vs Rockbank
The Rams were missing three players from their normal team on Saturday.
Selvidge, who was appointed coach just weeks before the season started, said things were going quite well despite the interrupted pre-season.
“A lot of mates from social comps have come and helped me out,” he said. “We’ve also picked up a fair few players in the last couple of
weeks.
“We had one girl play in B-grade today who is a really good shooter. Our keeper [Taylor-Stewart], who came on at half-time, we picked her up two weeks ago. We’re still building.”
The win takes the Rams to a 3-1 record, having been competitive in their defeat at the hands of Wallan.
Selvidge said they were looking forward to the challenge of facing top sides such as Romsey and Rupertswood in the next couple of weeks.
“We’ll see how we go against them and continue to build.”
In other results, Melton Centrals and Woodend-Hesket played out a 39-39 draw.
The Hawks came from five goals down at three-quarter time to level the scores.
Eliza Tiley was the Centrals’ best.
Diggers Rest had a big win against Broadford, winning 54-32.
Rupertswood and Macedon were the other winners.
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https://www.starweekly.com.au/sports/lancefield-shows-fighting-spirit-but-rams-take-the-points/
