By Tara Murray
A lack of polish proved costly for the Western Warriors in the Victorian Netball League on Monday night as their winning streak came to an end.
It was a shorter break for the Warriors, who faced the Boroondara Express, two days earlier than the usual Wednesday time slot.
The Express, which was coming off its first loss of the season in the previous round, took control of Monday’s game in the second quarter.
After leading by two goals at quarter time, the Express won the second quarter 17-8 to open up what would be a match winning lead.
There wasn’t much difference between the sides in the second half, with the Express winning 61-43.
Warriors assistant coach Courtney McLean said they didn’t do the basics right for long enough.
McLean coached the side with coach Kim Bailey away on work commitments.
“The second quarter wasn’t good,” she said. “We lacked in the basics consistently and having two options at the ball.
“I still think we are good enough to beat them and in patches we did what we wanted to do in the chat pre-game.
“We wanted to slow down Ruby Barkmeyer’s use in attack. We didn’t do it for long enough.”.
Kim Borger shot 27 goals for the Warriors, switching between the two shooting positions.
While disappointed to have conceded a big lead like that early, McLean said the group did fight hard in the second half.
“I’m proud of the girls,” she said. “In the past we would have let that go and they would have really run over the top of us.
“We didn’t do that but you don’t want to give away a lead like that at this level, it’s hard to get back.”
McLean said they were hoping with a bit of routine returning following two long weekends, they would be able to get some more consistency with their training.
She said due to the holidays they had missed a couple of main training sessions and it had shown in the result.
Going back to basics will be part of the focus before their next match.
McLean said getting Ruby Shannon and Eliza Gollant back into the side would help as well, with both out with injury.
The Warriors 23 and unders had a draw with the Express 41-41.
McLean wasn’t at the game but said she was told they were great for most of the game but needed to be a bit cleaner after throwing plenty of ball away.
The Warriors next match is on Wednesday against the Peninsula Waves.
