Tara Murray
A slow start proved costly for the Western Warriors in the Victorian Netball League championship division on Sunday.
The Warriors hit the road on Sunday, travelling to Torquay to face the Geelong Cougars.
The Cougars jumped out of the blocks and led by 10 goals at quarter time.
For there it was a more even contest with the Cougars able to extend the lead to win 66-43.
Warriors coach Kim Bailey said the match was a big learning curve for the group.
“They came out hard in the first quarter and showed us how to go about it,” she said.
“They put the pressure on us. We’ve got some girls that haven’t played VNL for a while so to experience that pressure will be good.
“There’s some good things to take away from the match and we will have to work on our basic skills.
“We made a lot of errors and we need to cut the error rate out.”
Bailey said that getting those connections as a new team was part of the reason for so many errors, which they also had in game one.
She said that it will get better as the season goes on.
“The defensive pressure is much more and the intensity rises,” she said. “The connection will take a while and we will get better and better.”
Kim Borger finished with 29 goals for the Warriors as they threw the line up around to try and find answers.
The Warriors hopes weren’t helped with Ruby Shannon breaking her nose in the game. Shannon was taken to hospital, missing half the game.
Bailey said they were unsure how bad the injury was.
The Warriors under-23 team also suffered their first loss of the season, losing to the Cougars, 46-43.
Bailey said they were also hurt by a slow start before getting back into the game. She said they had an opportunity in the last 30 seconds to at least come away with the draw, but they turned it over which was disappointing.
“They are a good team and had a couple of Victorian players,” Bailey said. “Majority of the team is their division 1 team that won the championship last year, so to go down by only three shows positive signs.”
The Warriors don’t have much of a break as they’re back in action on Wednesday night against the North East Blaze.
Bailey said they would watch back what they did and go again against a quality outfit.
