Strikers fire finals warning shot

IN what the Bendigo Strikers hope is a sign of coming good at the right time of the season, the Championship team produced arguably its most complete performance of the VNL season in a convincing 13-goal win over Casey Demons on Sunday.

The Strikers used their fifth home game of the season – and third at Mercy Junortoun Sports Precinct – to make a bold statement of their intention to go deeper into this year’s final series than they did last year.

In only their second season in the competition in 2025, the Strikers made it through to the semi-finals.

But there is every reason to believe they can improve on that benchmark in their second finals campaign, after toppling a genuine premiership contender in Casey.

The Demons entered round 17 in second spot on the ladder at 12-4, but slipped to third place following City West Falcons’ win during the week over Boroondara Express.

More importantly, a win for the Strikers moved them up a spot from fifth to fourth, overtaking North East Blaze.

Going into the final round, the Falcons and Demons both sit on 48 points, 10 behind runaway leaders Hawks, with the Strikers and Blazers on 44.

While Bendigo can climb higher, it faces the hardest assignment of all four teams battling for spots two through four on the ladder, fronting up against premiership favourite Hawks.

Having won six of their last seven games, and with Sunday’s win over the Demons as a further guide, the Strikers will head into their clash with Hawks with genuine confidence of causing an upset.

While by coach Tracey Brereton’s own admission, many of their recent wins could be deemed as ‘good in patches’, there was a more ‘four-quarter performance’ element to Sunday’s win.

“We knew what we had to do – I think we followed the game plan to a tee,” Brereton said post-game.

“One thing I was so proud of the girls was the four quarters.

“Consistency has always been an issue for us, but I think the consistency was there today.

“Credit to the girls, they implemented everything I asked and they stayed in it.

“It was a really physical match and sometimes we have shied away from the physicalness, but we just dug in and said, ‘bring it on’ to be honest.”

An arm-wrestle for much of the first half, the Strikers broke the game open with a purple patch in the last two-and-a-half minutes of the second quarter.

 

The Strikers rattled off six of the last seven goals to establish a five-goal lead at the main break, all but one of them coming from the sure hands of Hayley Howard, who finished with a game-high 42 goals at 97.67 per cent accuracy, a season-high tally for the first-year Strikers shooter.

Casey would only come closer than five goals to the Strikers once more, early in the third term.

Brereton hailed the precious few minutes before half-time as pivotal.

“It’s almost like we didn’t want half-time to come because you want to go with the momentum,” she said.

“We got back out there and there were a couple of heavy collisions, so some forced changes that we had to make, but they were great changes.

“Ruby B (Barkmeyer) was injected into the game and put her stamp on it and we kept pushing the lead out.”

A key in curbing the influence of dominant Demons shooter Emma Ryde (29 goals at 79.38 per cent), Brereton and Strikers skipper Elle Nexhip sung the praises of Charlotte Sexton, back in the lineup from her whirlwind first SSN season with Melbourne Mavericks.

The Australian Diamonds invitee’s defensive pressure in tandem with Ruby Turner, with Nexhip out in front at wing defence, was relentless and forced the Demons into errors.

“We’ve played a lot of our season without her, but just the calibre of player she is … she’s been in a Suncorp environment with Mavs and just recently got a gig in the Aussie Diamonds,” Nexhip said.

“Her experience and her presence in the goal circle against the likes of Emma Ryde definitely helps, just being a presence for us.

“But I think everyone stepped up and played their role in moments and stayed locked in to the game for a full 60 minutes.

“It was a really important win for us as a group and we were very happy to put out a 60-minute performance against Casey who are a really successful team.”