Blues’ depth putting GDNL on notice

TWO wins by an average of 73 goals in its last two Geelong & District Netball League (GDNL) meetings coupled with seven wins from seven games, has placed the Winchelsea Blues head and shoulders above the pack through six and a half rounds.

Fresh off an 83-goal win against Geelong West in Round 6 (102-19), Winchelsea doubled up on another dominant win against Anakie in the first half of the GDFNL’s Split Round 7, defeating the Roos 29-92.

Winchelsea coach Casey Carroll pointed to an increase in depth as largely responsible for the Blues leading the competition in Points For (460) and ranking second in Points Against (192).

“Megan Goonan we’ve added to our mid-court, Olivia Paatsch has been added to our goal circle, Kat Biscan and Maddy O’Keefe have both brought some great skills and experience, we’ve essentially added another layer of talent to each of our thirds and we’re seeing dividends already,” Carroll said.

Winchelsea gets the luxury of a week off this weekend while six other sides complete the second half of Round 7, but last year’s preliminary finalists have refined their focus early on in 2023.

“For us we’ve really worked hard on our systems and structures,” Carroll, a two-time Margaret Webb Medallist (Bell Post Hill), said.

“Our core from last season which included players like Ebony Berg, Gemma Stavenhuiter, Meg Royal, Melanie Philpott and Rhiannon Williams has stayed on for this season and we’ve only added versatility since then.

“We’re just focused on consistency at this stage and focusing on the things that we can control in our games.”

Winchelsea return to the court post-bye to host Thomson, who are determined to swing its season in the right direction with four wins from seven contests.

“We always seem to have really good hit outs with Thomson, so they’re a pretty competitive team and we don’t want to go in complacent,” Carroll concluded.

“We still train as we usually do, we still work on our systems that work for us, and we go into next week’s game the same as we would any other game.”

Winchelsea’s last GDNL flag came in 2012, after the club completed a three-peat across the 2010, 2011 and 2012 campaigns.