Strikers embrace tough run home as Demons await

Championship team coach Tracey Brereton has welcomed a tough two final regular season games as the ‘ideal preparation’ for the Bendigo Strikers’ second ever finals campaign.

The Strikers, currently fifth on the ladder, will play the second-placed Casey Demons at home at Mercy Junortoun Sporting Precinct this Sunday, before backing-up against top-of-the-ladder Hawks next Wednesday night in Melbourne.

Guaranteed to play finals, the Strikers can mathematically finish the regular season anywhere from second to fifth, albeit their hopes of a higher placed finish were dealt a blow on Wednesday night this week when North East Blaze upset Hawks and City West Falcons took care of Boroondara Express 78-66.

But it’s a win over the Demons that remains the sole focus, according to Brereton, and whatever happens from there happens.

“It might be a bit cliched, but at the end of the day, every coach just wants to finish in the finals and then after that it is what it is,” she said.

“At the moment, I feel like we are playing well in patches, but I’d like us to be more consistent. The consistency needs to lift.

“We need to concentrate a little bit more on the controllables, and if we can do that and do it more regularly, we could go anywhere in the finals.”

Sunday’s clash will be the Strikers’ fifth and final home game in Bendigo this season and their third at Junortoun.

Their first two – in rounds 1 and 3 – were at Red Energy Arena.

The Strikers are 2-2 at home, with their last clash a fortnight ago ending in a 53-69 loss to City West Falcons.

Brereton would love to finish the season with a positive win-loss ledger at home.

An undeniable boost in last week’s gritty 60-48 win over Geelong Cougars was the return of two-time club best and fairest-winning defender Charlotte Sexton, fresh from a stirring debut SSN season with Melbourne Mavericks.

The Australian Diamonds squad invitee, who has only played four games this season in Strikers colours, including the first three, will again be on court against the Demons, and Brereton couldn’t be happier.

“Just her experience in the team with such a young group is exciting to have,” she said.

“To be honest, we’ve done pretty well to maintain things without her.

“The win against Geelong last week secured us a finals position, so there’s been a lot of hard work already done.

“To think that we are only three years in … a new franchise … and each year we’ve finished in the top six is amazing.

“We should be very proud of what we have achieved.

“Credit to the people who got this club started, they really focused on getting things put in place with good people from the board right through to coaches.

“That makes a hell of a difference.”

The Strikers missed the finals in their first season in the VNL competition in 2024, when only the top four teams qualified, before a shift to a six-team structure last year.

Underlining the progress that has been made, the two other teams that entered the competition in the same year as the Strikers, Western Warriors and Gippsland Stars have yet to play finals in either the Championship or 23-and-unders.

The Warriors are still in contention for a 23-and-under finals berth, after starting round 17 in eighth spot.

The Strikers will be aiming to atone for a disappointing 17-goal loss to the Demons in round 8, in which Sexton and goal attack Ruby Barkmeyer, who has recently permanently joined the Strikers, were missing.

Brereton declared the performance as one of her side’s most disappointing this season.

“We didn’t play very well at all. Demons are a tough challenge for us; we’ve always had some tough battles,” she said.

“We did beat them in our first final (last year), but they are a team that always match up well against us and give us some trouble.

“If we are not switched on completely, they could do to us what they did in round 8.”

Goal shooter Emma Ryde was a major stumbling block, with 41 goals for the Demons at 93.18 per cent accuracy.

For the Strikers, Teal Hocking will enter the clash in outstanding form, finishing with a personal season-high of 48 goals (90.57 per cent accuracy) in the win over the Cougars.

Brereton was in no doubt what back-to-back games against the league’s top two teams to end the regular season meant.

“I think it’s great, we will know exactly where what sort of netball we have to be playing coming into finals,” she said.

“It’s the ideal preparation.

“But in saying that, all the teams this year, as you can see with the ladder – there’s no easy games.

“All the way through to the bottom you can see how close it is.

“Yes (Hawks and Demons) sit on top, but we’d get a couple of really competitive games playing anyone.”

The Championship game starts at 3pm on Sunday.