Road trip sours for Steelcats
HOURS travelling and a fast game turnaround landed the Magnetic North Steelcats in a precarious position in the Queensland State Netball League.
The Steelcats scored a 55- 33 win against Wide Bay Thundercats but lost 44- 34 to the Whitsunday Sharks on Saturday.
“We’re fairly certain it will push us into third and put us in a precarious position in the country championships,” Steelcats coach Jillian Joyce said. “Only the top two teams go through to the final.”
Joyce said the Steelcats ran out of puff in the last game of the weekend’s double- header and it was a cause for concern.
“We just lost our bundle,” she said. “What happened in the last five minutes we don’t want to see happening.”
The Sharks led from the first quarter but the Steelcats were never too far behind.
In the third quarter the Steelcats were just two points shy ( 31- 29) and took the lead from the Sharks a number of times in the last play until fatigue allowed the Whitsundays to widen the gap.
However, Joyce said the Steelcats had improved in both attack and defence from the competition’s first rounds.
“We had a good first game and really put into practice what we were working on,” she said. “In attack our shooting statistics were much higher than the first game ( in April).
“I thought defensively we were very strong, there was no easy pass for the opposition.
“They’re some real positives to work on before our next weekend in Cairns.”
The Steelcats once again proved the stronger side against the Thundercats, improving on last month’s 19point win in Townsville.
Joyce said there were patches of such improvements against the Sharks, who the Steelcats drew 40- all against last month, but more base fitness work was needed.
“It’s nothing disastrous, they’re simple things we should be able to fix,” she said.
“We’ll be working on our fitness and conditioning.”
The Steelcats will play over June 23- 24 for Rounds 8- 11 of the comp, taking on Capricorn Claws, then Thundercats and Cairn’s Marlin Coast Marlins at Marlin Coast Rec Centre.