The Swifts had been on the back foot through a tough patch of the season, but some of their key players dug deep to help earn the team a key win in their chase for a finals place.

The Swifts got away to a fast start, leading 13-7 at the quarter-time break, before holding their nerve late in the game to nail a 40-37 win.

Swifts A Grade coach Kristy Dodds was ecstatic with her team's performance and execution of their game plan on the day.

"This year off the court the team has been faced with many challenges and our biggest goal was to just keep up the fight," she said.

"It's been an extremely emotional week for the club, especially the A Grade group so this win meant a lot more than just the four points. It was a celebration of raw emotions.

READ MORE:

"Our main focus leading up to the game was to to try and slow the pace down and not get drawn into the speed of the game coming off last weeks loss where we made costly errors."

Dodds said Tarnee Orr, Erin Freeland and Michaela Armer were some of the Swifts' best players, with Armer particularly influential in the ring, shooting 31 of the Swifts 40 goals.

Over on the field, the Swifts senior footballers fell short against a slick Kalkee outfit, going down 5.4 (34) to 8.15 (63).

Kalkee were inaccurate in front of goal, kicking 2.4 in the second quarter and led by just 13 points at half-time despite a strong start to the contest.

The Swifts hit back in the third term, kicking three quick goals to briefly snatch the lead, before Kalkee settled to run away with a comfortable win.

Reflecting on his team's loss, Swifts coach Brett Hargreaves said he was disappointed his team couldn't quite put four quarters of football together, just yet.

OTHER NEWS:

"Whether that's because we are such a young team or we've got blokes coming back from injury - it's something we'll look at," he said.

"We haven't been able to put our full squad together for more than two months. That might be a factor. It's just frustrating that we can click for two quarters, but not for four."

"They're a top-four side - it just showed us where we need to be."

"Where we are at the moment isn't good enough. We realise what the standards got to be going forward in how we go into training, preparation, recovery."

In round nine the Swifts will host Edenhope-Apsley, with both the netballers and footballers eyeing an important win.

The Saints have won just one game so far in the 2021 A Grade season, with the Swifts now eyeing the chance to continue on their winning ways and improve from seventh on the ladder.

Edenhope-Apsley has also struggled in the senior football, winning just two games in 2021.

Coming off two consecutive losses, the Swifts will be looking to bounce back against the Saints to hold onto their sixth-placed ladder position.

Round nine fixtures:

If you can see this message, you are a loyal digital subscriber to The Stawell Times-News, as we made this story available only to subscribers. Thank you very much for your support and for allowing us to continue telling Stawell's story. We appreciate your support of journalism in our great town.