ANZ State Netball League Round 14 Preview

Two wins against Devon and Burnie at home this weekend will see them move ahead of Northern Hawks and in to fourth spot. The table would suggest that Karana will go in strong favourites at home against the two coastal sides but both Devon and Burnie have shown strong signs of improvement in recent weeks and will require Donna Terry’s side to be on their game. Karana despite coming off the Easter break and the bye still have a few players short of fitness. 

“Karana were hoping with the Easter break and then a bye to be back at full strength this weekend for their double header encounter against their Northern opponents but unfortunately this hasn’t happened.  It will be another test for the depth in the Karana unit but they are confident that they can come away with the points on both days.” Terry said 

Despite these injuries to personnel Terry is confident her side who will no doubt be all too aware of the ramifications for their finals hope will keep errors to a minimum and be on their game this weekend. 

“We will need to polish up on a few skill errors that crept into the later part of the game to improve our performance this weekend but again I have confidence in the girls that this will happen and that we will come away with the points.” 

Glendon Kingston Blues need to record two victories if they are any chance of keeping their slim finals hopes alive. Kingston will need to rely on teams above them suffering a significant late season slump and to collect wins in most if not all remaining games. Kingston will see these as winnable games when hosting the only teams lower than them on the ladder at their home court in Kingston. If Kingston were to slip up not only would it end their faint finals hope it could see them slip below either of the coastal sides. 

Coach Erin Baker was hopeful her side can put in a couple of strong performances and was quick to recognise that both north-west sides would be difficult games and that Kingston would need to improve on recent performances. 

“We will be looking for strong team performances and to get back to winning ways this weekend after a disappointing performance against Cripps in our last game. 

With wins against Burnie in both of our meetings and a win and loss to Devon, the team is very motivated to consolidate our final NW encounters with two wins.  The team recognise that these games will not be easy. We’ve shown consistently that we are able to gain plenty of possession, and we will be focussing on confident and composed use of the ball for a full 15 minutes at a time.” Baker said 

OPSM Devon and Burnie Tigers will be travelling south to face the two sides immediately above them on the TNL ladder and will be confident in a competitive showing and hopeful in coming away with at least one win from their double header road trip. Both sides will be eager to get one up on their regional rival and look to avoid last place on in the standings. 

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