Western Roar have won a hard-fought victory in the Indigenous Round of the Gold Industry Group West Australian Netball league, managing to down an improved Souwest Jets 58-48 on Friday night.
Coming into the game, Roar were expected to lock in third spot against a Jets side that had only won a single game for the season. Instead, the Roar were made to earn the game in inches, as Jets pushed the side to their limits.
Speaking after the match, Roar goal attack Tess Gee-Cransberg had nothing but praise for the Jets team and their efforts.
“They like to run hard and contest every ball,” she said.
“They’re a great side; I’m really proud of the girls for coming through.”
Overhead passes were the name of the game early as each goal shooter had a height advantage over their direct opponents, with the Roar taking more opportunities to break open a small 15-11 quarter time lead.
The struggle only continued in the second quarter as both sides continued to ramp up their intensity, and led by a freshly interchanged Hannah Kuhar into centre, the Jets maintained their pressure to keep the teams close with a 30-23 half time deficit.
The Jets put everything they had into their final half for the season, and after going into the three-quarter time break with the momentum but down 44-35, they opened in the fourth with three goals in a row to threaten a massive comeback and upset.
After being on the receiving end of multiple goal runs throughout the season, Gee-Cransberg was happy the Roar came together to wrest momentum back with three goals of their own.
“We’ve been working on identifying when things aren’t going our way,” she said.
“We recognised really well what they did, but we adjusted and really got the momentum swinging back our way.”
The 10-goal win leaves the Roar with a 9-5 win-loss record for the season and puts them in a do-or-die clash against the Curtin Hammersley Comets, who finished last in 2019, on October 2.
While Gee-Cransberg admits the Warriors are the team to beat in this season’s finals race, the Roar will look to take the series one step at a time.
“The game plan is to keep building what we’ve been doing all season, play our style of netball, and keep focussing on what’s working for us,” she said.
“We’ll have a look at what the Comets do, but our focus will be on what we do well and making that work for us.”
As for the Jets, they will look to improve during the off-season and come back stronger than ever in 2021 as they ended their campaign with a 1-12 win loss record along with a draw.
