Orange fought back from a slow start on day one of the 2016 Netball NSW State Cup on the weekend, hitting their straps on day two and ultimately finishing the inter-regional competition sixth.
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The young Thunder side won five of its 10 preliminary round games to finish the initial stage of competition sixth, before losing both of their playoff games to Baulkham Hills and then Sutherland to finish sixth overall as well.
Orange coach Em Callaway said she, and the rest of the group, were pleased with the result considering the young and inexperienced nature of the side. The Thunder mentor did lament the lack of continuity in her side’s opening games though.
“We struggled at the start, there was a lot of combinations there who had never taken the court together before so you could see the link wasn’t there to begin with,” Callaway said.
“It was always going to take a bit of time we didn’t have training sessions leading in and after having quite a few late pull-outs, but it came together eventually and on the second day we started to look a lot more like the Orange team we’re used to seeing.
We struggled at the start, there was a lot of combinations there who had never taken the court together before.
- Orange coach Em Callaway
“I’m happy with the result, it was a really tough weekend. There wasn’t any easy games this year at all.
“Even the games we thought might’ve been a bit easier just weren’t, so it was a really tough weekend and all the girls did a really, really good job.”
That slow start began against Manly-Warringah at Homebush’s Netball Central on Saturday.
The Thunder went down 21-14 to get their campaign off to a less than ideal start but they bounced back with a 21-13 victory over Inner Western Suburbs.
They followed that up with a strong 30-14 victory over Grafton and also defeated Sutherland (20-18), lost to City of Sydney (19-18), Northern Suburbs (22-19) and drew 21-21 with Newcastle on day one.
Orange started day two with a 21-17 win over Hastings Valley before defeating Quirindi (21-13) and drawing with Baulkham Hills (24-24) to finish sixth.
The Thunder lost their qualifying final 27-19 to Baulkham Hills and then their fifth place playoff to Sutherland 26-14.
“I was most impressed by the younger girls in the side,” Callaway said.
“Alice Maier was brilliant … and Caitlyn Harvey was too. She did a great job.
“Cheynoah Merchant was very good, she linked well with the defensive end and then Annie Miller was very strong too.”
Matt Findlay
Formerly a sports specialist, I'm based at Orange and shift between wide-spread range of subjects here and, often, across the entire Central West region of NSW as well. I have almost a decade of experience in the media and marketing industries both here in Australia and internationally, along with journalism I have experience in content strategy, brand development, and digital and social media. Along the way, I've been fortunate to win a handful of media awards and be nominated for several others too.
Formerly a sports specialist, I'm based at Orange and shift between wide-spread range of subjects here and, often, across the entire Central West region of NSW as well. I have almost a decade of experience in the media and marketing industries both here in Australia and internationally, along with journalism I have experience in content strategy, brand development, and digital and social media. Along the way, I've been fortunate to win a handful of media awards and be nominated for several others too.
