Blues pay for slow start

For Tongala’s A grade netballers, maintaining a level for an entire match is something that will come with time, but on Saturday proved to be costly against Congupna.

The Blues were slow out of the blocks, unable to put on a strong performance for the full 15 minutes of the opening quarter, and found themselves playing from behind from that point on.

Tongala coach Caddison Mulholland said her side would need to get on top of this issue if it was to continue to win games of netball throughout the season.

“We cannot think we have done enough at any stage of the game,” she said.

“We really need to start and finish off every quarter of the match as strongly as we can. It’s essential to us being successful that we are giving it our all for the entire time we are on court.”

It was a disappointing result for the Blues.

Despite not being given a lot of second looks going into this season a win could have had them comfortably in the top eight of the competition just a week out from the interleague bye, with the opportunity to be 4-2 at the break.

Instead, the Blues are ninth, though a likely win this week against cellar-dwellers Katandra could see them back in the eight after six games.

Though Mulholland was disappointed, she is well aware it will take time to get her side back up the ladder.

“It’s not going to happen overnight,” she said.

“We had a lot of really positive moments in the match, our attackers played well and a lot of girls stepped up around the court and wanted to lead the side. It’s something that is going to make us a better side as time goes by, we just aren’t there quite yet.”

There have been a lot of good signs despite this loss, so maybe the Tonny rebuild won’t take as long as some had expected.