Great Western Netball and Football teams travelled to Warrnambool to go up against Allansford in its first practice match for 2019 on Saturday.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
With the inclusion of one of the final pieces of their football recruitment for the season, the Lions welcomed Valerian Munkanome, the first of their collection of Tiwi Island recruits.
Munkanome arrived in Victoria during the week.
Coach Will Bell said the excitement around the region, club and players about the recruits is pleasing to see.
"Valerian displayed some electric speed in the practice match and has left and right skills.
"He was so exciting to watch and gave us a lot of runoff our back-line in the second half.
"He ran and bounced the ball three times and no one could go with him - we can't wait for all our recruits to arrive."
Bell said overall, he was happy with the team's performance on the day.
"Both clubs played their hearts out, which was pleasing to see," he said.
"We won the inside 50 counts and the centre clearance count for the day - we were really happy we could win the ball and put inside the forward line to kick those winning scores when the season comes around.
"They were the two key areas I identified I wanted to do well at on the day and we did."
Practice matches are set up to identify areas needed improvement before the season commences.
"We need to work on pace to transition to our defensive game," he said.
"We were pretty good on the offence, we moved quite well - we will need to work on defending a lot quicker.
"Teams can do as much damage to you as you can do to them when they have the ball.
"We will be able to work on that and patch up where we need to before the season starts."
A Grade netball coach Amy Kindred said after a shaky first quarter the players stepped right up, settled and started doing what has been worked on at training.
"It took us some time in the first quarter to settle in but for the next three quarters the improvement was insane," she said.
"We had a very new team, with only about three girls from last year's side playing
"We just wanted to make sure we stuck to what we did at training - it was all about gelling together."
Kindred said a baseline was set from what the club was looking for last year.
"It got the club talking again and we must have done something right with a few new players joining," she said.
"Signing Kira as my assistant was the best thing I have done, she has brought some great ideas and has been a big help already."
The footballers will take on Pimpinio on Friday night while the netballers will go up against Rupanyup in a couple of weeks.
"We had a few girls out in A and B Grade this weekend so hopefully we have a full side out there next time," Kindred said.
While you're with us, you can now receive updates straight to your inbox each Friday morning from the Stawell Times-News. To make sure you're up-to-date with all the news from across the Northern Grampians shire, sign up here.