Hawks all but seal BFNL finals spot

EAGLEHAWK has all but locked up a BFNL finals spot after surviving a brave fight by Strathfieldsaye at Tannery Lane last Saturday.

The Hawks – exceptionally led by their experienced bookends, Allira Holmes in defence and Chloe Langley at goal shooter, and creative wing attack Gracie Berryman – notched up arguably their best, but easily most important win of the season to date in a 45-41 triumph.

They survived several mini surges by the Storm, who badly needed a win to keep their finals hopes alive.

After leading by three goals (36-33) at three quarter-time, the Hawks struggled to extend their lead until late in the quarter, when they pushed it out to seven goals.

But as they had done all day, the Storm kept coming, getting as close as four goals to ensure the Hawks were never quite safe until the final siren.

Set to lead the third BFNL club she has coached into finals, Eaglehawk’s Jannelle Hobbs acknowledged it had taken a full four quarter effort by all players on court to get a much-desired win.

 

“They kept coming the whole time – it was a real pressure game from both sides,” she said.

“It’s good to see both of these clubs pushing; and it was a good standard game too.

“I thought it was a team effort by our girls, probably the best they have played as a team for a while.

“(They were) very connected and they just kept on fighting.

“Pleasingly, we held our composure at the end.”

Hobbs pointed to the big-game and higher-level experience of captain Holmes and goal shooter Langley as critical in such a tight contest.

“To have one at each end is a real positive,” she said.

“They are great with their talk, The other girls are fairly young, so their influence is always going to be important.

“I’m not quite sure how it (the ladder) all works in terms of the Castlemaine bye, but that should be enough to hang on to a spot in the five.

“We do have two hard games to come in Kangaroo Flat and Sandhurst, but we will go out and do all we can and see what happens.

 

“The girls have worked hard for it, and it’s a new group.

“We feel we are getting better each week.”

Eaglehawk now sits two-and-a half games clear of Strathfieldsaye with four rounds remaining.

While it’s possible for the Storm to overtake the Hawks if they win all three of their remaining matches and Eaglehawk loses both of its, it will take something extraordinary to get past Kangaroo Flat this weekend and Gisborne a fortnight later.

For the Storm, the inconsistency that has plagued much of their season peppered their performance against the Hawks.

They led at quarter time, but found themselves down by four and five goals at stages of the game, and at one point seven, only to bridge the margin back to one or two goals on occasions.

Playing coach Jess Mangan admitted it was disappointing to see their finals hopes all but evaporate.

“There were a lot of things we did that lost us the game,” she said.

“Credit to Eaglehawk, their pressure was really good, but our ball placement and passing is something we really need to work on if we want to compete at the higher level,” she said.

“That’s something we’ll focus on as we move on to our next couple of games.

“We seem to find our flow and then somehow, we seem to find ourselves out of it.

“We need to identify what is causing us to drop momentum. If we could put together a solid four quarters, we’d definitely be better off.

“All teams have their high lows, but that’s something we in particular struggle with.”

Rachelle Mangan at wing attack was the pick of the Storm players, narrowly ahead of sister Brooke at centre.

Mangan identified greater accuracy in their passing game as a priority for the Storm in their final three matches, including a very winnable contest against Golden Square in round 16.

The Storm players wore black armbands as a mark of respect for inaugural A-grade coach Lou Chilver, who lost her brave battle with cancer on July 9.

In other games, Sandhurst halted South Bendigo’s win streak at three with a season-best to date 73-50 win over South Bendigo at the QEO, while Kangaroo Flat extended its unbeaten run to 10 with a 58-goal win over Golden Square.

This weekend’s round 13 will be headlined by Gisborne’s clash with Sandhurst at Gardiner Reserve in a third versus second battle.

Round 12 recap: Sandhurst 73 defeated South Bendigo 50; Strathfieldsaye 41 lost to Eaglehawk 45; Golden Square 26 lost to Kangaroo Flat 84; Gisborne bye.

Round 13: Strathfieldsaye v Kangaroo Flat; South Bendigo v Golden Square; Gisborne v Sandhurst; Eaglehawk bye.