‘Could not have asked more”: Strikers 23s bow out with heads high

A season of fluctuating fortunes for Bendigo Strikers’ 23-and-under team has ended, following a heartbreaking four-goal loss to City West Falcons on Wednesday night.

The Strikers, playing in their second consecutive finals series in only their third season in the competition, came up just short of victory in a 65-61 defeat at the State Netball Centre.

A see-sawing contest all game, it was not until about the final minute that their fate was ultimately sealed.

The loss ended a valiant season from the club’s young guns that unfortunately ended at the same stage as last year’s breakout campaign, in the first week of finals.

Confidence was high when the Strikers skipped to an impressive six-goal lead eight-minutes into the opening term, before the Falcons rallied to close the gap at the first break.

An impressive opening to the second quarter by the Falcons yielded an early three-goal lead, before it was the Strikers turn to rebound strongly, tying the game up at half-time.

But with the Strikers clinging to a one-goal lead at the final change, the Falcons blew the game open by scoring seven of the first eight goals of the final term for a five-goal lead with 10-minutes remaining.

Try as they might, the Strikers could not get any closer than three goals the rest of the way, despite on several occasions threatening to seize the momentum.

While there was natural disappointment in the Strikers camp, the overwhelming emotion from coach Fiona Boyer was pride in her players’ performance and purpose.

“The girls were unreal. Honestly, they were incredible,” she said.

“You reflect on things at clutch times, but it doesn’t define the game they played.

“Those things happen under high pressure, but the whole game was played under high pressure and there was a lot of good.

“That was a very high-scoring game, played at a frantic pace.

“I commend the girls for being able to do what they did for the length of time they did.”

Boyer admitted to not getting too caught up in the Strikers’ slick, early six-goal lead.

“We just knew we had to get off to a good start. What that looked like on the scoreboard we weren’t sure,” she said.

“Probably disappointing to be one down at quarter-time in the end, but we never let it get away from us, whereas slower starts have hurt us at times.

“The girls are very self-driven girls; we are very lucky to be part of a crew like we are.”

A fair indication of the coach’s faith in her players and how in turn it was rewarded, Boyer made just one change in personnel during the game, with Alice Kain, who started the game at goal keeper, replaced by Harriett Whiteacre on the court at quarter-time.

Whiteacre took to the court at goal defence, with Eliza Mooney switching to goal keeper.

“All the girls played their role,” Boyer said.

“The girls who didn’t were unlucky not to get on the court.

“We do have depth on the bench and we could have put any of them, but we were playing well and it’s what got us to where we were.

“You would love the result to be on the other side of the ledger, but you could not have asked anything more of the girls.

“We had the chances, no doubt about that, but it was not to be.”

Reaffirming her views on the performance, Boyer said it would be difficult to contain a standout to just one or two, declaring the task of awarding best players as ‘a lottery’.

Certain to have featured near the top of the list was goal shooter Jorja Clode, who capped a brilliant season with a 48-goal performance at 92.3 per cent accuracy, while working brilliantly in tandem with Ella Kerlin.

After an injury-affected 2025, the young Wimmera-based player scored 706 goals for the season at 91 per cent, up from 387 goals at 89 per cent last season.

Skipper Elsie Boyer at wing attack, Amity Drayton in centre and Asha Gray at wing defence led from the front, while the defence could not have made life tougher for the Falcons goalers.

Encouragingly, and once the disappointment of their finals exit fades, Boyer said her players would walk away having learned valuable lessons – in netball and life.

“The girls were pretty flat afterwards, but that’s reasonable,” she said.

“They all want to be out there competing and if you want to compete, you want to win.

“So there’s a level of disappointment.

“The toughest thing about finals is you leave Melbourne (on Wednesday night) and you don’t actually have a last training session.

“We trained well on Sunday night, but you never leave training assuming it’s your last one.

“We all depart and most of us don’t live within cooee of each other. Nobody’s a neighbour, that’s for sure.

“It’s a really different kind of feeling.”

A pleasing follow-up to last year’s first 23-and-under finals campaign, the 2026 Strikers finished the home and away season in fifth spot with a 10-8 record.

Wednesday night’s results:
1v2: Geelong Cougars defeated Melbourne University Lightning 64-61
3v6: North East Blaze defeated Western Warriors 58-48.
4-5: City West Falcons defeated Bendigo Strikers 65-61.