AN Emily Brotherton-inspired Vipers have started their 2016 Toyota Cup campaign in style, beating round-one rivals Robin Hood Craig Harvey Mechanical 41-20 at Anzac Park on Saturday.

Faced with last year’s division two premiers, Vipers shot out of the blocks and recorded the 21-goal victory with consummate ease over their Robin Hood foes, Brotherton’s work in the defensive circle drawing huge praise from shooter Mel Vardanega.

“We checked the stats after the game and Em smashed it. She would have had 20-odd intercepts,” Vardanega said.

“And Katie Pratt was another who did really well. She’s been out of the game for a couple of years now but you wouldn’t have known that from the way she played on Saturday.

“In both the attacking and defensive end, she was great.

“For the first game of the year it was actually a really good game.”

The comfortable win is the ideal way for the Vipers to open their Orange Netball Association division one campaign in 2016.

In their first year last season after a number of players moved on from Life Studio to form a new club, the Vipers showed glimpses of what their squad was capable of without really troubling the top two sides in eventual premiers Robin Hood and Mardi Aplin’s Life Studio.

But many expect that to change this winter.

An in-form Brotherton and returning Pratt add plenty of starch to Vipers’ back court, but the players themselves aren’t buying into the hype.

“We’re not placing any sort of expectations on ourselves,” Vardanega said after her team finished third in 2015.

“We’ve all had a talk and we’re just excited about playing another season. We all came off the court pretty happy with the way we played on the weekend so we’ll build on that and see what happens.”

In other Toyota Cup round one scores, Royal Hawks knocked off  KWS 1sts 63-34, defending premiers Robin Hood chalked up 56 goals in a comfortable 31-goal win over Life Studio Mid Wests and Life Studio won 48-24 over High A.