Em's Blog: Magic Dissapointing On The Road

Added 9 April 2008

Without a doubt everyone at camp is disappointed with our performance on court last weekend. Two tough games resulted in two losses, that's three on the trot now. Here's the run down of the weekend:

It all began at Sunbury. Unfortunately we didn't have De Araugo or Lambrou for this game, but we were ready to step up and meet the challenge head on. We rolled up to the chilly Boardman Stadium early with our game faces on. Last season, Sunbury flogged us at home by a whopping 33 points and with this in mind, we were determined to make amends for our lacklustre and embarrassing performance last year. However, Sunbury jumped the gun and I remember looking up at the scoreboard around quarter time and being shocked to see Sunbury on 19 points and a dismal 6 to Hawthorn. But, that fighting spirit came out from within and we put a 13-0 run on the scoreboard to eventually be down by a mere 4 points at halftime. Promising! The second half was a scrap fest. Our defence did create turnovers but we couldn't convert and although a late steal in the game resulted in a surge towards our ring to tie the game with a lone goal, Sunbury held off long enough to hear the final siren sound and game over. End result: Loss by 2 points. The mood afterwards was that of extreme disappointment. We all believed this game was one we definitely couldn't afford to lose considering the tough competition we are to meet later in the season, but we couldn't keep our heads down as we had another important game the following day.

Traralgon. Only a 2 hour drive along the Princes Freeway! We didn't have the services of De Araugo (again!) or Bradshaw, McKrimmon and Lambert, but this provided an opportunity for some to step up and show us what they're made of! We rocked up to the Comm Games stadium (very nice) ready to make amends for our loss on Saturday night. We began hesitantly, and it wasn't until 3 quarter time that we were up by 11 points!! Sumskas definitely rose to the challenge and added some much needed points to our side of the scoreboard. It was a good feeling being up by 11, going into the last quarter. But as the saying goes, the fight's not over until the fat lady sings, and that was very true of this game. For some unknown reason, we choked and La Trobe City, through a great performance at the stripe by Carmen Weaver came back and won by 3 points. Again, a late quarter court pass from Elyce Lambrou to Ash Fennell resulted in a 3 pointer attempt to square the game, but the shot rimmed and bounced out. End result: Loss by 3 points. I must say the refs didn't do us any favour for the whole second half of this match, but that shouldn't determine the win or loss. Bumma. As you could imagine our heads were hanging low after this match. The weekend which should have resulted in 2 from 2 is now 0 from 2. We now sit second bottom from the ladder and have a lot of work to do. But never mind, we are still training hard. The coaches slightly altered Monday's session to add a more competitive dimension to our training regime and this definitely contributed to the increase in intensity. Hopefully we can train well again tonight under Stu and Chris without Knighty (he's in Sydney) to prepare for what will be a hard match against Werribee 6pm Saturday at BSC.

Everyone, the support we had in the opening round was fantastic and definitely contributed to our success against Mildura. Please come and support us again this Saturday night at BSC where we will meet a very tough and competitive side in Werribee as it is your cheering and clapping that really helps us get over the line!

Emily #9

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