A fast-finishing Western Warriors left it too late to get the points in their Victorian Netball League Championship match against Boroondara Express on Wednesday June 19.
The loss kept the Warriors in 10th place and coach Kim Bailey was left to lament another sluggish start.
“Close yet again, we just can’t give teams that big of a start,” she said.
“So yeah, disappointing. You know, the good thing is we know we can come back, (we) just can’t get that far down. We were flat to start, it looked like we were flat.
“It took us a while to work into the game, but we tried a few different combinations and just giving them time to come off the court like Simona (Di Philippo), for example, came off the court, had a look at what’s going on, then goes back on and she had a great second-half.
“Same with Ruby (Shannon), was a little bit behind the play, came back on and probably had the best defensive game for the season.”
The Warriors were down by 12 goals at one stage, but outscored Boroondara 19 to 12 in the final term.
Western will be without goal defence Natalie Tommasini for a few weeks.
“It’ll be a little bit difficult, but we’ll live,” Bailey said.
“With Elly (Randall) stepping up tonight, we’ve got Georgia Berry, and we might bring Eliza Gollant up.”
Western’s Under 23s defeated Boroondara by 10 goals, which Bailey said “would give them the world of confidence”.
“They played tonight like we thought they could play the whole season so (it was) really pleasing. We’re coming to the back end of the season and they can finish off positively hopefully. The smiles on their faces when they get a win was worth a million bucks.”
Western headed to Bendigo on Sunday to face the Strikers and will front up again on June 30 against Melbourne University Lightning in Ballarat.
