SUPER CHARGED
COACH, GUNS RETURN FOR FINALS
The Geelong Supercats women will welcome back a host of stars for tomorrow night’s qualifying final against Ringwood at The Arena, while the men will hit the road to continue their title charge against Nunawading.
GEELONG Supercats will be bolstered ahead of tomorrow night’s qualifying final with the returns of four Australian representatives and coach David Herbert.
The second-placed women lost their final game of the season a fortnight ago, but were without Herbert — who was part of Australia’s Gems under-19 World Cup campaign with Supercats young guns Jaz Shelley and Isabelle Bourne — while Sarah Blicavs, Ezi Magbegor and Zitina Aokuso were also away on an Opals camp.
The three Opals and Shelley will walk straight into the Supercats’ starting five for tomorrow night’s home final against Ringwood and teammate Ebony Rolph said they’d be welcomed with open arms.
“When we’ve had our full side, we haven’t lost a game, so it does bring confidence to us but I think it’s also how we play within each other,” Rolph said.
“Them coming back from having Opals and Gems commitments is only going to make them better as players, so I’d be very scared to be versing us when we have our full side.
“We really did miss the five players and ‘Herby’ but I thought everyone else really stepped up and the players that don’t usually play a lot or not at all have got a chance to mix in, which is only going to make us better for finals.”
Rolph, a championship winner with the Supercats two years ago, said the team had all the ingredients on paper to be successful and Herbert had set the bar higher knowing the talent in the group.
“(Herbert) is a bit grumpy (this year), but it’s good for him to be pushing us as individuals and making us play harder,” she said.
“We know the standard we want to play to and the majority of those games, even though we’re winning, we haven’t played to that standard,” he said.
“Previous years, we would exceed our expectations all the time because we would just play hard and work for each other.
“This year we have so much more talent that even when we’re winning by 20, we’re thinking we should be winning by 40. But I think when it comes down to those final minutes and points, our team will exceed those expectations.”
The Supercats will be without Bourne, however, who has gone to America, where she’ll start a college scholarship.