By Tara Murray
The Western Warriors were made to rue a poor third quarter in their Victorian Netball League loss to the Casey Demons on Wednesday night.
It was a good contest in the first half with the Warriors leading by one goal at the main break.
A 24-13 third quarter in the favour of the Demons turned the game and the lead got out to nearly 20 goals.
While the Warriors were able to peg it back slightly, the damage was down as the Warriors lost 77-68.
Warriors coach Kim Bailey said the result showed what happened when they didn’t play the full 60 minutes.
“You can’t win games when you have a 24-13 quarter,” she said. “We lost our speed on the ball and that is because we had a frantic first half.
“We need to make sure we continue with that consistency right through the 60 minutes. You can’t win a game if you’re going to play 45 minutes, that’s what we did.”
Bailey said the lead got out too much for them to have any chance of getting back into the game.
She said they struggled with the pace and Emma Ryde in the Demons shooting circle.
“We are still working out combinations and getting everyone familiar with each other,” she said.
“It’s a long haul. I would like to say we wanted it to happen over night, we knew it wasn’t going to happen.”
The Warriors suffered an injury blow with Olivia Ellis falling during the game and left the court with a suspected broken arm.
Bailey said it’s a pretty nasty injury by the looks of it.
On the other side, Bailey said they were hopeful of getting Ruby Shannon and Eliza Gollant back for their next game.
“We’re really confident we’ll have Ruby back and Eliza played a quarter on the weekend, will see her again on Saturday and hopefully we will be able to run her a couple of quarters through.
“We really miss someone like Liz, she can just come through and take those intercepts out of nowhere.”
Bailey said they weren’t sure when Abbey Ellis would return after sustaining a shoulder injury while playing with the Opals but were confident in their attacking end without her.
The Warriors 23 and under side produced one of its best performances to come away with a 60-58 win.
Bailey said it was really good for the side.
“They had been in front and let the lead go a couple of weeks ago, they really fought hard and were really composed tonight [Wednesday],” she said.
“Something we haven’t seen a lot of. Moves done at the right time and we were really happy for them.”
The Warriors face the Wilson Storage Southern Saints in their next match.
Bailey said she thought it would be a good match up.
