Plenty of fight in the Rays: Cooper

THE scoreline got away in the end, but Northern Rays assistant coach Ange Cooper believes her side’s fighting qualities offer promise for the season ahead.

The Rays were dogged on the court and did not shy away in the physical Sapphire Series opener against Wildcats.

They stayed in the fight until the end, but errors on the attacking end cost them, as the visitors took a 46-32 win.

There plenty of positives for the Rays, who won the club’s first quarter of netball in state league, and were just four points down in the third quarter. They were led by their defensive end, which forced consistent turnovers and was willing to match it with a tough Wildcats attack.

Goal keeper Chloe Cooper, who arrived in Townsville just two hours before the game after working a full shift as a physio in Cairns that morning, took the player-of-the-game honours after showing her tenacity in the goal circle, in a long three-quarter stint.

Cooper said good signs were there for a side that only came together as a complete unit right before the clash.

“We got a lot of positives out of that clash, we didn’t get the win but we fought hard,” Cooper said. “I don’t think the final score reflected how hard and tough the game was.

“It was our first game together and two of our athletes had only met the rest of the team the day before. We hadn’t played together before ever, and I saw some great passages of play. There were a couple of little errors in our game, we turned over a bit of ball at the end, but the things we see are very workable. They are things we can and will address in training this week. “

The Rays endured a threehour post-game training session on Sunday under club coaching director Vicki Wilson and will return to their home cities for the week before meeting up again on Saturday to play at Townsville Stadium.