Hawks fight for draw
DRYSDALE mentor Claire Deretic has been hailed for a coaching masterstroke as the Hawks pinched two points in a thrilling draw against Queenscliff.
Deretic, with her side staring down the barrel of an upset loss at Queenscliff Recreation Reserve, moved Georgia Berry from defence to attack to spark a late resurgence.
Berry netted five goals and nine telling assists as the Hawks pegged back a twogoal three-quarter-time deficit to share the points with the Coutas.
“Drysdale made a great tactical move,” Queenscliff coach Kerri Maher said.
“We were two goals up in the last quarter and they moved their goal defence (Berry) to goal shooter with five minutes to go ... it was a good move.”
The Hawks had the ball in their attacking third when the final whistle blew but were unable to net the winner.
The Coutas, too, lamented missed opportunities.
“We just missed a couple of goals. It was panic stations,” Maher said of the dying seconds.
“There was 10 seconds to go and we had a shot at goal and missed. They got the rebound and went back (down the court) and it was all over.”
Despite the disappoint- ment, Maher was upbeat.
“I felt like we were pretty strong,” she said.
“That was the first time we’ve had our full team together since we started this year.
“The girls were really positive after the game because usually we get flogged at the start of the year and we get better as we go along
“So it’s positive that we made a good start because we will only get better. Considering the whole team hasn’t trained together all pre-season, we were happy with what we pulled off.
“In the past when they’ve made a mistake they drop their heads and within two minutes we’d be down by five goals. But when they made a mistake (on Saturday), they never dropped their heads, they just kept fighting. That was the biggest positive for us. They never stopped and they worked really hard. Obviously we wanted to win, but you win some, you lose some and you draw some.”