Pythons 7-0 after rout of RC Vipers
It’s Thursday night in the greatest suburb in the world, the mercury is tipping 35 Celsius and the girls are waiting with anticipation to see if Melbourne netball are going to cancel the game. The 7pm game was cancelled due to “extreme heat” policy but all other games were declared on so at 8.20 it was all on, a repeat of the last two Grand Finals and shaped up to be a big test.
Traditionally, the Pythons have struggled in the extreme heat and despite murmurs from Coach Baron to bring in an 8th player to allow us a sub, we would go into the game with the bare minimum. Alanna enhanced her reputation as the Pythons most committed player, by riding her pushbike all the way from North Richmond carrying a giant bag of Ice for the team to use cooling themselves down.
The Queen of Richmond and Parker played for the Rattlers in 7.40pm game as well and it proved to be a great warm up for the main event with both players having dominant games for the Pythons. The first quarter saw the girls jump out of the gates hard with heavy defense, 3 or 4 clean turnovers from Maria and with shooters Parker and Langerak dropping bombs from deep (1 miss on the quarter). Quarter time saw a 7-1 lead. I don’t often single out Maria cause I don’t want to show favoritism but I really think this was one of her all time dominant games running rings around the opposing Center, forcing her into mistake after mistake and taking the bumps and bruises with a wry smile as the elbows got strong as the game got further out of the Vipers reach.
Quarter time I looked Jess, Alanna and Jen in the eyes and laid down a challenge that I didn’t want a single goal against us this quarter. All three lifted in the second and in conjunction with great play from everyone, we blanked the Vipers 10-0 in the quarter and got out to a 17-1 lead by the end of the first half. It was one of those games where we couldn’t do much wrong. Maria Jen and Elle were going forward with amazing fluidity, Parks and Langerak didn’t miss a single attempt and the team play was unreal. As a coach I was literally just sitting there fist pumping to myself and lightly chuckling under my breath. We were the fuckin Harlem Globetrotters of Netball for that 25 minutes.
The heat started to take over a little in the second half and our aggressive relentless goal-scoring dried up a little as the any nerves and tension were removed entirely from the game. Jen I thought was the standout in the third quarter as others started to fade she kept running and tracking her player around the court forcing multiple interceptions as well as some country netball style bumps. 6-2 in the third quarter giving us a 23-3 lead. Positions were swapped up in the final term with Parks going down back, Alanna playing some Wing and Jen going into Shooter, finishing with a respectable 1 from 2. We would go on to score 3 goals and blank the Vipers in the quarter for the second time in the game.
Final score 26-3
Everyone played well, I would have happily voted for any one of the 7 on the day. Standout performances on an exceptional day out for the RC Pythons as follows
3 Votes: Maria Crawford
2 Votes(and would have got 3 on any other game): Parker (11 goals 1 miss) and (4 defensive turnovers)
1 Vote: Jen – Jen was back to her absolute best, could have put her any position on the court and she would have dominated, probably one of Jen’s best games I have seen her play.
Pythons are 7-0 and on track for a perfect season, we go into the break with a goal percentage of 266% and look well placed to continue our dominance of the RC netball scene. After the break, we hope to welcome back Fed Kaso to get some game time to ensure she qualifies for finals. The rangy mid courter could be key in our run to an unprecedented 5 straight premierships.
