Mature Vixens’ last-minute win
MELBOURNE Vixens coach Simone McKinnis has praised her side’s maturity after opening the new Super Netball season with a memorable one-goal win over cross-town rivals Collingwood Magpies.
Promoted as “The Battle”, the third meeting of Melbourne’s intercity rivals lived up to expectations as both teams battled back and forth until the Vixens closed out a 59-58 win in the dying stages.
McKinnis revealed she had detected a harder edge and maturity about last season’s minor premiers, with Saturday’s result a good example of their development.
“In that last quarter, there was a moment there where you saw the Magpies were up and about,” McKinnis said.
“For them, it was there for the taking and I think that we stood up to that and just kept at it right to the very end.”
Malawian import Mwai Kumwenda landed the winner with 43 seconds to play, while defender Emily Mannix intercepted Collingwood’s final pass to seal the victory. Kumwenda finished with 41 goals from 42 attempts to be player of the match.
While proud of the performance, McKinnis felt there was plenty of room for improvement after a passive start that saw the Vixens fall behind by five goals in the first quarter.
“I thought Collingwood played a very good game in keeping us up and taking away our depth and our flow of the ball,” she said.
“We’ve got to be better at taking that back ourselves, I think we got caught up in them dictating what we were doing.”
Magpies coach Kristy Keppich-Birrell felt lapses at both ends of the court in the second quarter ( won 16-9 by the Vixens) ultimately decided the result.
But she was more than happy to see her team win every other quarter to claim three bonus points.
“I don’t think I was a massive fan of the new points system when it was first talked about, but today I’m pretty happy with it,” she joked.
Another positive for Collingwood was the return of experienced defender Sharni Layton, who took time away from netball last year due to exhaustion.