The Narrandera Eagles A Reserves netball team are through to the first round of semi finals. The side beat Collingullie with a 51-49 win. The A Reserves coach, Emma Piltz, said the team are “just pumped” after their win.
“They won by just two goals. Collingullie were on the top of the ladder and unbeaten,” Mrs Piltz said. The team will play Mangoplah in the first semifinal, with the game to be held in Wagga on Sunday. I’m pretty confident that they’ll win. They’ve won against Mangoplah the last two times they’ve played against them.”
“If they do lose it will be disappointing, because they’ve definitely got the skills to beat the teams above them. If they don’t let the nerves get to them, they should be fine. We’ll have a full team too, all eight players,” Mrs Piltz said.
The reasons for the player absences haven’t been injury, or penalties, but other commitments. Many of the players have commitments to other sports, and have had conflicting schedules. The A Reserves team is quite a young side.
“Most of the girls are school age, and we’ve got one player who is at university. They’re a gorgeous group of girls; I’m very lucky to be coaching them,” Mrs Piltz said.
“In a small town like Narrandera, we need those younger players to fill out the higher grades. “There are four girls in the A Reserves who are eligible to play in the Under 17s. “But they have the skills and maturity to play at that higher level.
“Besides, the Under 17s have enough players, and if you sent those kids down you’d be preventing other girls from playing netball. “Sometimes it means that they’re playing against teams who are in a higher age group; I know that the Leeton side, for instance, are a slightly older team.”
Mrs Piltz coaches with Georgia Fuller, who has taken on the role of assistant coach. “The girls really respect Georgia. They’re such a lovely group of girls!”
Training will be held today (Tuesday) before the semifinal is held on Sunday.
“We’ll be hoping to play a grand final in Narrandera,” Mrs Piltz said.
The season has wrapped up completely for the Eagles after the senior grades all had losses against Collingullie Glenfield Park on the weekend. The Under 17s went down 147-44 to Collingullie, finishing seventh on the ladder. The Reserves had a struggle in their last game, scoring only one goal for the entire match.
The final score was 107-10, with the Reserves also seeing out the season in seventh place on the ladder. The Seniors put up a fight in their final game, but were beaten by the Gullie side, with the final score sitting at 147-69. The Seniors wrapped up the season at ninth on the ladder.
“We played all right,” said seniors coach and captain Jarrod Lane. “We were up against a team who were getting themselves ready for the finals. We had a few costly turnovers, and didn’t quite take our chances.”
The qualifying final will be played this Saturday between Collingullie and Leeton, while the Griffith Swans will meet Coolamon in the elimination round on Sunday. Turvey Park are already in the semi-finals. The final scores for the remaining netball teams were not known at the time of going to print.
While the seniors are officially out for the year, the grand final of the Riverina FNL is typically held at the Narrandera Sportsground, which should see spectators from outside the shire travelling to the town. The Eagles Presentation Night will be held on September 28.
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