Year 7/8 Knockout Netball

On Tuesday 6 June, our Year 7/8 Knockout Netball team travelled to Westminster School to participate in Round 1 of the Statewide Knockout Netball competition.

Both of the Year 7/8 games where hard fought wins with both Westminster and Tatachilla having strong and skilful teams. In both games it was a close first half with SMC pushing out the lead in the second halves. The girls used their skills and composure to maintain the lead, resulting in them winning both games and moving onto the next round.

All of the girls played their roles on and off the court, pushing themselves and each other through the hard minutes. Our defensive end was disciplined and kept a high intensity pressure that resulted in many turnovers throughout both games. This was specifically noted in our second game vs Tatachilla who had a tall shooter that was dominant, however our defensive players were able to shut her down and won a lot of ball.

The mid court was controlled and connected both ends. Their transition down court from our defence to attack was adaptable and accurate. Their work into the shooters and feeding into the circle was amazing. However they didn’t just attack, their pressure defensively down court was outstanding as they won a significant amount of ball before it reached our defence.

Our shooters held their own throughout both games and worked the circle perfectly against 2 different defensive teams. Their ability to adapt to different defenders and find the space was great to watch and finished off great work from the whole team with brilliant shooting and accuracy.

A very proud coaching bench at the end of the day! The team has progressed to Round 2.

Open Knockout Netball 

The Open Netball team also faced their first round of the Statewide Knockout Netball Competition, held at Westminster School between Westminster, St Peter’s Girls, and our SMC team.

Game 1 in the morning was against the home team Westminster, who appeared to be a very tall and intimidating team, coached by South Australian netball legend Marg Angove. The game started very evenly, with our SMC team taking a slight lead early. In the second quarter, we really found some great form and were able to earn ourselves a buffer of 6 goals at halftime. The third quarter saw the home team really fight back and bring the game back within two goals, however our SMC players adjusted and took control again, taking the lead back to 8 goals at 3-quarter time. During the last quarter, we were able to come home strong, particularly when their tall and accurate Goal Shooter came off with a sore ankle. We finished the game with a 14-goal win, which was really exciting considering we hadn’t beaten Westminster in a Round 1 Open Knockout game in years.

The second game against St Peter’s Girls was quite a close tussle for most of the game. Being the second game for the day we had a few tired bodies, however we were able to push on and take a 10-goal lead at 3-quarter time. We were able to utilise our full squad throughout the game and finish with another great win. Such an exceptional display of sportsmanship, effort and encouragement throughout the whole day was demonstrated by all of our SMC players – it was fantastic to see. Two wins mean that we now progress through to Round 2, which will be played in Week 2 next term against Tatachilla.

Final Scores: 

SMC 51 defeated Westminster 34 

SMC 43 defeated St Peter’s Girls 39