LIAM PHILLIPS
GAWLER Central has now held
its opponent to the lowest score
of the Barossa, Light & Gawler
Netball Association Senior
1 round for the second straight
week, hammering Freeling 64-8.
The result reflects Tiger coach
Reece Turtur’s comments after last
week’s win over Willaston, where
he said he challenged his side on
the defensive side of the game this
season, and it is paying dividends.
“We’ve been harping on about
our defensive pressure all pre-season,
and I think that is what stood
out the most this week,” he said.
“We want to be known for our
defensive efforts and ensure that
area of the court is working as well
as what we know our attacking
side can be.
“To hold Freeling to only eight
goals for the entire match is a pretty
good effort.”
Turtur has always felt his side
has the firepower to go goal-forgoal
with anybody, but he said he
used the blowout as an opportunity
to experiment with setups which
may come in handy later in the
year.
“We had some really clear objectives
going into the match from
an attacking perspective,” he said.
“There was a benchmark for
goals per quarter we wanted to be
aiming for so we had something
to play for in that second half – I
think it’s very easy to build bad
habits in big wins like that, so it
was a positive to see us stay engaged
throughout.
“The score gave us an opportunity
to re-jig some of our attacking
line-ups to try more of a moving
circle rather than our usual postup
with a tall shooter – it still
needs more time to gel, but it’s
valuable to get a chance to see
how it looks in a game for when
we may need it.”
While everyone did their job
in the big win, Turtur pointed out
the efforts of Donna Victory and
Casey Black as standout performances.
“Donna put out a really strong
performance in our midcourt –
her linkage between the defence
and attack was outstanding,” he
said.
“Casey also had a fine game in
wing attack – her connection with
our goalies just continues to grow
each week and her work rate is always
at 100 per cent.
“They were really strong, but I
always say we want to be a team
of 10, and we have the motto that
‘none of us are going to succeed
unless we all succeed’.”