Friday Night Lights: A win, a loss and a rainstorm.

Welcome back Netball fans! I would like to start with a big thanks to the Aunties & Nana's for the comments and potential Tiger jokes. All of the jokes are superior to my Airline cup of coffee joke. (While we are on the topic of Dad jokes: What time is it best to go to the Dentist?  Two-Thirty (tooth hurty)).

Before I break down the games, I need to mention the weather. Seriously? What the )*(&%$ is with Friday Nights, Netball and rainstorms? The weather was nice all day on Friday and then it started to rain. Sideways. Rain that went sideways. By the laws of gravity, rain is supposed to fall down. Either that or Newton's apple did more damage than we originally thought.

Karen looked less than impressed wearing all her winter clothing, sitting in the rain with a cranky 2 year old wiggling on her lap. Paint a pretty picture?

The rain did stop. The two year old stopped wiggling. The games went on....and Taylor lost.

U8's:  A slightly improved performance, but still a loss.

                                           Morphett Vale    6   -    0    Cove Tigers

Taylor and crew took to the rain-sodden courts and for the first five minutes the ball was strangely in the opposition's end of the court. The little girls were passing the ball, intercepting the occasional pass and even made a shot attempt.
They are improving and the coaching staff is doing a splendid job of slowly teaching the girls concepts in attacking and defending. I was trying to get Taylor to avoid standing in a melee of screaming girls, but rather move to an open space on the court.

" Yah but Dad, my coach tells me I have to dodge."

I don't quite understand what she is referring to, or what she thinks dodge means, but I am glad to hear that she is listening to her coach. Oh, and she intercepted three balls rather than politely ducking.

In the end, the Tiger cubs were brought down again, but they put up a growl in the fight and I am going to claim that as a major success.

U11's: Rounding into form

                                                        Hub     6  -   14    Cove Tigers

Ella and the Tiger teammates took to the same courts after the Cubs and put on a fine display of Netballian skills. What a fantastic term you have just created...Netballian.  Well Thank you James!

Ella played one quarter at GA which is a change from recent past and scored two very pretty goals. She was then moved to a defensive role and surprisingly had a very strong performance of marking her player. The coach has a difficult situation of having 10 players for a 7 roster team. The outcome is that players are sitting during quarters and often playing out of position so that the masses are appeased.

The team as a whole played very well and avenged an earlier loss to this same Hub team. They still had a second quarter lapse, however the girls rediscovered some form and finished the second half in a dominant fashion.

I hate to sound repetitious but this team is special and has talent at the defensive, center, and offensive positions. The coach needs to find their buttons and keep hammering home concepts so that they avoid that mid-game lapse which has cost them wins throughout the season.