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But the immediate future looks assured with Ava Lowndes in defence, Ella Wicks in the midcourt and Ava Hamilton in goals from last year’s A-reserve premiership team all stepping up to play key roles against the Bulldogs.<\/p>\n
Coached by Sartori and star goaler Ruby Barkmeyer in the absence of premiership mentor Jayden Cowling, who is away competing at the men’s and mixed national netball championships in Perth, the Roos were thrilled to put the first big challenge of their season behind them.<\/p>\n
“We came in wanting to hit some targets we’d been working on in pre-season, which I felt we did,” Barkmeyer said post-match.<\/p>\n
“But the important thing was playing the way we had been training by getting those connections going early.<\/p>\n
“Ella Wicks came up from A-reserve and Ava Lowndes is in A-grade full-time, so we were really hoping to see those combinations do well.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n “We know it’s only round one and there’s a long way to go, but every girl went out and did their job.<\/p>\n “We’ve had a few changes to A-grade over the last couple of years, but today just shows what our depth is like.”<\/p>\n Emerging with an important first-up win was made to look all the more impressive without the services of Sartori, who injured her calf at training during the week, and Hocking, who will miss multiple games due to her Mavericks reserves team commitments.<\/p>\n “We’re rapt to get away with it, Obviously the goal was to get the win, but the objective was to play good netball,” Barkmeyer added.<\/p>\n “I think it shows what a good season we are in for.<\/p>\n “Back-to-back in A-grade and A-res is what we are aiming for, but lots of things need to happen before them.<\/p>\n “We know we need to better than last year \u2026 every team’s improving.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n “But we’ve just really been focusing on ourselves at training, to bring out our best netball.<\/p>\n “There’s no better challenge than Gisborne down here (in Gisborne) in round one, but we can walk away with a win knowing there’s still plenty to work and errors to be fixed.”<\/p>\n Gisborne’s hopes of an early win over the reigning premiers were lifted by the return of dual Betty Thompson Medal winner Maddy Stewart for a one-off game.<\/p>\n Now playing for Foster in the Mid Gippsland Football Netball League, where she was joint winner of the league’s best and fairest last season, the star defender was straight back to her brilliant best and an obvious key in the Bulldogs’ bright start, together with fellow defender Kirby Elliott.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Given the departure of former SSN defender Zoe Davies from the Bulldogs line-up this season, Gisborne would no doubt crave a more permanent presence from Stewart this season.<\/p>\n Her availability helped offset the absence of recruit Tilly Shepherd, who was unavailable for round one.<\/p>\n Bulldogs dual premiership coach Tarryn Rymer said her side’s inability to convert on an impressive opening to the match always had the potential to leave them vulnerable.<\/p>\n “We always knew K-Flat would reassess things and make some changes and when Abbey (Ryan) came back into the game, she was hard to stop,” she said.<\/p>\n “That one definitely got away from us and in attack we made too many errors.<\/p>\n “They clogged up our attacking end and we panicked a bit, which is something we’ll need to work our way through.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/static.timesnewsgroup.com.au\/prod\/uploads\/sites\/24\/2026\/04\/DSC_0138_40528.jpg\")
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