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A few more wins aside, a definite aim for the Magpies in the second half of the season will be reducing the margin in losses against individual teams.<\/p>\n
“There are some teams that are the benchmark, but especially the teams we are a bit closer to on the ladder, we’d like to match them or get over the line,” Saunders said.<\/p>\n
“I believe we can do that.<\/p>\n
“From here, we’ll look to streamline things a bit and hopefully get some more A-graders in next year.<\/p>\n
“If you look at our teams, a lot of them are first-year teams.<\/p>\n
“Most of the 15-and-unders are first-years, so they are only babies.<\/p>\n
“Our 17-and-unders (from 2025) all went up, so you are rebuilding again.<\/p>\n
“Each of those junior groups, we are filling the teams, but they are only young compared to others.<\/p>\n
“Pleasingly, Ella Rixon, who is in 17s, has played a couple of A-grade games.”<\/p>\n
A member of the BFNL’s 15-and-under interleague team, Piper Fynch, who plays predominantly in the 17-and-unders, has also featured in the A-reserve team.<\/p>\n
Crucially, Saunders said morale was still high at Camp Reserve and the workload being shared, paying credit to her dual netball operations managers Mel Oldfield and Cass Berry.<\/p>\n
Disappointed to have missed the win due to a family commitment in Queensland, Saunders was being sent video and texts of live updates.<\/p>\n
“I pretty much got a blow-by-blow summary of the game. I couldn’t have been more ecstatic with how the girls went,” she said.<\/p>\n
“We have lots to work on, but the girls were able to execute on what we’ve been doing at training and lift.”<\/p>\n
“We made some changes as we have been doing all season and it was nice to see them come off.<\/p>\n
“It could have gone either way and the discussion would have been, ‘Vanessa, what are you going to do now?’<\/p>\n
“We knew we had to win this one, but the scoreline showed we can push some of the other teams we finished close to.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
CASTLEMAINE coach Vanessa Saunders hopes the Magpies’ first win in more than two years will give her side plenty of belief and impetus for a stronger second half of the season. The Magpies broke a 778-day drought in between wins with a 57-43 win over league newcomers Broadford in round 8 of BFNL A-grade netball. […]<\/p>\n