The GIANTS are continuing to ramp up their pre-season preparations, taking on the Adelaide Thunderbirds and Melbourne Vixens in Bendigo over the weekend.
After two matches against the Sunshine Coast Lightning last weekend, these matches were the next instalment in the pre-season schedule ahead of Team Girls Cup on the Gold Coast in late February.
The GIANTS took on the Thunderbirds on Saturday afternoon with a final-second Super Shot from the Thunderbirds’ Tippah Dwan securing a one-goal win for the Adelaide side, 59-58.
“I was fairly happy with that game,” said coach Julie Fitzgerald.
“When we looked back on our performances the weekend before, there were a lot of improvements in our game against the Thunderbirds and I thought our composure and our consistency in that game was better than it has been.
“We had a poor third quarter but we had a lot of learnings from that quarter as well.
“I’m much more focused on individual quarters and how the team is performing as a whole, the individual result is not that important to me.”
With Jo Harten (knee), Amy Parmenter (routine injury management) and April Brandley (routine injury management) not taking part in this weekend’s matches, it was a great opportunity for three of the GIANTS’ four training partners to get some consistent game time.
On Sunday the GIANTS took on last year’s Grand Finalists, the Melbourne Vixens, who fielded a strong line up to power to a 74-51 victory
“To be honest, I was reasonably happy with the first half of the game,” Fitzgerald said.
“We got off to a poor start for the first few minutes but from there on in I was reasonably pleased with the game and I thought we were well and truly in it at half-time.
"We brought on some younger players in the second half, who had an initiation of fire playing against some of the best players in the world, but they would have learnt so much from that experience that I think is so valuable.
"I’d be lying if I didn’t say I was sorry how much the result blew out - the second half we weren’t in the game at all and that was very disappointing - but again, that’s a learning you have in pre-season.”
Jamie-Lee Price was stand-in captain for the weekend with the Diamond playing every minute of both games in C while Maddie Hay and Tilly McDonell both saw plenty of court time.
“We’ve got players that we’ve got to manage and when you manage some, it puts greater demand on others but I thought Jamie-Lee stood up particularly well having to play two full games,” Fitzgerald said.
“I was very impressed with Maddie, Tilly and Jamie-Lee is just that rock-solid middle that holds it all together and she consistently played every minute of every game.
“I thought Tilly was quite strong against the Thunderbirds. It’s one of the first times we’ve asked her to run out in GD in a SSN game and I thought she really stood up.”
Fellow contracted GIANTS Matisse Letherbarrow, Lauren Moore and Amy Sligar played significant game time across both matches while it was a young line-up, featuring three training partners, that finished the match against the Vixens.
Defenders Jemma Donoghue and Erin O’Brien and shooter Ang Frketic all saw solid minutes in both matches across the weekend.
“Jemma’s one who really grew over the weekend - just the little things in her game that needed ironing out, you could see real improvement there and she’s quite a threat in that WD position so I was very happy with her,” Fitzgerald said.
“I thought Erin played very, very well against the Thunderbirds and I thought she had a really good game.
“I thought she struggled against the likes of Kiera Austin but we would expect that of anyone that young and she would have learnt so much from the game.
“Ang can shoot from anywhere, her greatest strength is her percentages. She wasn’t too happy with her performance the weekend before so I was very happy to see her come out and be much stronger this weekend.”
Fitzgerald paid credit to the 3000-strong crowd who sold out Red Energy Arena in Bendigo on both days of the pre-season netball action.
“It was a phenomenal tournament and full credit to Netball Victoria, the Vixens and the City of Greater Bendigo,” she said.
"It was amazing. The organisation was tremendous, the hospitality was great - sell-out crowds both days - and they were really engaging crowds that really added to the atmosphere.
"Bendigo’s a beautiful city.”
The GIANTS will next take to the court in the official Suncorp Super Netball pre-season tournament - Team Girls Cup - which will be held at the Gold Coast Sports and Leisure Centre from Friday, February 24 to Sunday, February 26.
“It’ll still be a massive learning curve for us,” Fitzgerald said.
“We’ll still have a couple of our top players out but Amy Parmenter should re-join us which is exciting.”
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