NETBALL
ROYAL Hawks have well and truly stamped themselves as premiership contenders with their form over the opening four rounds of Orange Netball Association’s Toyota Cup, particularly last Saturday when they thumped Life Studio Mid West Eyes by 41 goals.
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Played at Sir Neville Howse Stadium, Hawks led from start to finish against Life Studio’s second string side, claiming an emphatic 75-34 victory and setting up a top-of-the-table clash with the similarly unbeaten Robin Hood next weekend.
“I’d like to think we can be up there with the best sides at the end of the season,” Hawks player-coach Amanda Hurford said.
“We’ve had a pretty good start to the year, but next week is obviously a really big game against Robin Hood, they’ve been so dominant for so long.
“We’ll speak about that one more at training this week, but it would be a really big thing for us to get a win there, but it’ll take a pretty huge effort too.”
Led by 15-year-old Erin Naden, who Hurford said was “outstanding” in Saturday’s win, Hawks started quickly and shot out to a substantial lead in the opening quarter, which they never relinquished.
“Erin is in her first year with us, making her Toyota Cup debut with Hawks and she was outstanding,” Hurford said.
“She played wing attack on the weekend and was really good, all the girls played really well but she was definitely the stand-out.
“I was really pleased with the win on the weekend, we hadn’t started all that well in our last game the previous Sunday so one thing I really liked was seeing us play out the full game.
“We started really well and built on that for the rest of the game. It was a tough win, probably a bit closer than the scoreline says, Life Studio are still a tough side.”
In Saturday’s other round four games the Vipers trumped Life Studio (44-43), Robin Hood smashed their clubmates Robin Hood Craig Harvey Mechanical (54-29) and OHS High A just missed out on the chocolates, going down to KWS 1sts 32-31.
Winless through the opening three games but continually showing plenty of promise, High A - who lost to Life Studio’s first and second string sides along with Vipers in rounds one, two and three respectively - fell agonisingly short of their first win of the season.
The loss resigns them to seventh after the first month of the competition, four points adrift of the top four.
Robin Hood and Hawks are first and second respectively, separated by percentages, with Vipers sitting third and Life Studio in fourth.
