So we’ll know plenty about GIANTS Netball this week as they come up against the Queensland Firebirds in Suncorp Super Netball Round 4, having endured their first defeat of the season – a stinging one-goal loss against crosstown rivals NSW Swifts after leading at three-quarter time.
With the Firebirds looking every bit the finals contenders again in 2018 after missing out last year, a huge challenge – but also an opportunity to make a big statement to the rest of the competition – awaits the Giants on Saturday afternoon.
While it’s incumbent on teams to keep their eyes ahead and focused on their next assignment, veteran Giants defender Bec Bulley says her team has done its fair share of critical analysis to determine where they fell down against the Swifts.
For a team that prides itself on its disciplined, miserly defence (having conceded only 99 goals in the first two rounds) a high penalty count and a lack of consistent defensive pressure in Round 3 rankled with the Giants and Bulley.
“We were obviously really disappointed. To lose by one goal, it could have gone either way. We certainly looked hard at that game and how we can be better, because basically we think we weren’t good enough and we can be much better than that,” she says.
“At Giants our penalty count is always really low. We were probably a little bit disappointed at how high our penalty count was against the Swifts.”
“What we’ve addressed is just little things like making sure our arms aren’t coming up (to obstruct), just those tiny little things that you end up out of play. So just making sure we stay in play, that we’re contesting but doing it in a clean way.”
“Defensively we just weren’t contesting enough, we weren’t having a go at the ball. We were also conceding and letting them go and were just happy to run up behind them and get our hands up. We actually need to be contesting more balls.”
Bulley also pinpointed a breakdown in the way the team used goal attack Susan Pettitt to open up avenues to goal.
“In attack we just need our goal attack to get in the circle and be a threat, rather than hanging out, bringing the ball down. They’re two really specific things that we’ll certainly be looking to implement into our game this week.”
The Giants will need to click at both ends of the court in Round 4 if they’re to topple a Firebirds side that has knocked off 2017 premiers the Sunshine Coast Lightning and the Melbourne Vixens on the Vixens’ home court in the last fortnight.
Bulley says the key will be preventing Firebirds midcourters Caitlin Nevins and Mahalia Cassidy from finding easy passage to goal shooter Romelda Aiken.
“Firebirds are always a big threat. When you’ve got Romelda Aiken up the back, they’re able to score really quickly,” she says.
“It’s going to be a tough game for us. We do need full-court defensive pressure because we can’t wait until the ball’s in the goal circle to try and turn it over.”
GIANTS Netball take on the Queensland Firebirds at Sydney’s Quaycentre on Saturday at 3pm AEST. The match will be broadcast live on Channel Nine, Telstra TV and the Netball Live app.
