LIAM PHILLIPS
AFTER starting its Barossa, Light &
Gawler Netball Association Senior 1 season
with six consecutive losses, Willaston
won its second game in a row on Saturday
with a convincing 60-29 road win at
Freeling.
Donnybrooks coach Jess Earle said the
game was really won in the defensive half,
with plenty of turnovers being capitalised on
to open up the margin.
“Our defence and turnovers were just ridiculous,”
she said.
“Danica Earle was turning the ball over left,
right and centre, reading the play beautifully
and it made a huge difference.” While it was a
relatively clean performance from the visiting
side, Earle said there were still signs of bad
habits creeping into her team’s play, but to its
credit, it did not get derailed.
“Every game we’ve played so far, we have
these lapses,” she said.
“I think we just lost concentration for a
short stretch of time and we make bad choices
with our passes without any real pressure
on us.
“The mind wanders for a minute or two, but
we were able to combat that because our defence
was so switched on.
“We had some really great passages of play
where we were executing the plans we’ve
worked on in training, and having Mel Forrester
down in goal shooter is a massive bonus
for us.”
Earle, who also injected herself into the action
to play her 100th game for the club, had
plenty of positive words to say about some
key contributors. “Emma Hartnett played
centre for us and she did an amazing job considering
she’s predominantly a defender,” she
said.
“Also Dakota Williams, who sat on the
bench for us and played a quarter at wing
attack – she brought up her 50 games at the
club, which is an amazing effort considering
how much she has on her plate with other
sports.
“I coached Dakota in under-15s, so it was
really special for me to get to share the court
with her because I even said back then that
she was going to be a division one player at
the club – it was the highlight of my day.”