Swans bounce back with dominant defence

SOUTH Barwon scored a stirring 55-27 victory against Leopold in GNL A grade at the weekend to bounce back from a 20-goal defeat to Geelong West Giants. Assistant coach Jed Christian said the Swans wanted a response and the netballers got it.

“We had a bit of a few hard truths during the week, a few chats here and there to get us back as more of a united side,” he said.

“And I think that definitely showed on the weekend. It was a big unit defence effort.”

It was the defenders who were named the Swans’ best, with Eloise Maddox, Maddison McKiernan and Georgia Corbett mentioned.

“If you can keep a side to four goals in one quarter, I mean, you can’t go past looking at them, they obviously stood out individually as well, but the three of them together as a unit was very special,” Christian said.

He added they were hunting for the ball and picked up a lot of ball outside the defensive circle.

The Swans were proud of their 15-4 opening term blitz.

“That’s something we’ve tried to work on, especially from last year, our starts weren’t the best sometimes,” Christian said.

“We’re a team that if we start hot, we finish hot.

“So I think from last week against Geelong West, we had a shocking start and that then went throughout the whole game.”

South Barwon are fourth with three victories and two losses, and face the winless St Albans away on June 7 at 1.40pm.