Gallant Strikers bow out of VNL Championship race

A BREAKOUT VNL Championship season in which the Bendigo Strikers ticked off plenty of boxes is officially over after a semi-final loss to Boroondara Express on Wednesday night.

Aiming to build on the club’s first ever finals win over Casey Demons seven days earlier, the Strikers put up a brave fight against the Express, but came up 12 goals short.

A 61-49 loss at the State Netball Centre put the lid on a fascinating second year in the state’s premier netball competition for Bendigo, one that delivered 12 regular season wins from 18 games and their maiden finals appearance.

The Strikers at no stage led the contest, albeit they did have the game on level terms at 12-12 two minutes into the second quarter.

But it was short-lived.

A goal by Isabelle Hodgson gave the Express a quick one-goal advantage, which was as close as the Strikers would come for the rest of the match, despite their best attempts.

Hopes were still flickering when the Strikers trailed by only five goals at half-time, but the Express’ strong full court defence ensured no in-roads were made, as the margin at three-quarter time was extended to seven goals.

After the teams traded goals in the opening few minutes of the final term, the Express exerted their class on the contest to push the final margin out to 12 goals, down from a game-high 13 with six minutes to play.

While they had their chances, particularly in the first half, Brereton insisted her team had been made to pay for a less than full four-quarter performance.

“We played two-and-a-half quarters of really good netball, but unfortunately as a whole team, we just couldn’t quite capitalise on all the gains we were getting at the start of the game,” she said.

“In the first quarter we had 11 or so gains and we only scored off four.

“I just think if we had put the scoreboard pressure on consistently throughout the game, it might have been different come the last quarter.”

Gracious in defeat, Brereton paid full credit to the Express, who stretched their winning streak against the Strikers to five games over the last two years, highlighted by one and three-goal thrillers in this year’s regular season.

 

“They are a tidy unit; they held us on the scoreboard,” she said.

“If they got a gain or if it was their centre pass, they were just clinical in getting the ball down (the court).

“That shows their experience with the players they have got and the connections they have.

“The longevity of their team … they’ve all been there a while.

“Hats off to them, but we go down to a team that’s been in the grand final the last two years.”

The Strikers got brilliant contributions from young gun goal attack Teal Hocking (19 goals from 21 attempts) and vice-captain and goal defence Zoe Davies, whose multiple VNL championship-winning experience came to the fore.

Goal shooter Gabe Richards capped a solid first season for the Strikers by scoring 30 goals at 85.71 per cent accuracy.

“Teal’s work rate really got up there as the game went on,” Brereton said of Hocking’s performance.

“To be honest, everyone had solid patches tonight, it just wasn’t a consistent four quarter game by everyone.

“That’s what hurt us.”

Brereton was quick to assure her playing group that not even a loss could detract from what had been in many ways a special season for the club.

“That is what I said to the girls, don’t let this one game define how good our season was, because at the end of the day, we are second-year VNL club and we have made a semi-final,” she said.

“You can’t be too upset about going down to the grand final team from last year.

“A big tick for us was just making finals, and we did that. And we got one win from the finals out of the 23s and Champs.

“We’ve ticked the boxes really.”

Brereton’s sentiments were echoed by Strikers captain Chelsea Sartori, who insisted she could not have been prouder of everything the team had achieved during the 2025 season.

“The score definitely didn’t reflect our game and didn’t reflect our season either,” she said.

“We are disappointed as we have gotten so close, only two games away from being there on grand final day, but Boroondara were just too good tonight.

“They just played amazing and unfortunately, we couldn’t match it.

“But I was so proud of the girls to keep fighting until the end.

“It’s amazing that we have created history; we’ve made finals and we won a final as well.

“To get to a semi is pretty amazing in our second year. This is only the beginning of our success.”

In the other Championship semi-final, Hawks advanced to the grand final with a shock 60-49 win over previously unbeaten City West Falcons.

The Falcons will play the Express in next Wednesday night’s preliminary final.