Kees netballers start run up ladder
Horsham district netballers head into round three of competition on Saturday with the league mid-table continuing to hot up after two rounds of play.
Kalkee, after a round-one victory against Kaniva-leeor, backed it up again in its round-two match against Harrow-balmoral, beating the Southern Roos 46-24.
The win and its margin might be a surprise – not because Kalkee came away with a win against a strong Harrow-balmoral side.
Rather Harrow-balmoral’s grudge match against Noradjuha-quantong in round two demonstrated the Bombers and the Southern Roos, as they were in 2021, hope to chase each other all the way to the top-three again this season.
Kalkee’s win against Harrowbalmoral perhaps suggests punters should add the Kees to a short list of clubs that could match it with an again dominant Laharum.
The Kees should start favourites against Rupanyup this weekend and it might take until Kalkee’s roundfive matchup against Jeparit-rainbow for them to be challenged again this season.
A Harrow-balmoral side that would not have taken the defeat without disappointment will face a Pimpinio team fresh from a three-week break. It was another tough weekend for Rupanyup after Laharum handed it a second convincing defeat of the year.
The Demons defeated the Panthers 72-34 in a match Laharum was expected to win.
Laharum will host Jeparit-rainbow at Cameron Reserve this weekend in what should be a test of the Storm’s surge capabilities.
The Storm, which beat Edenhope-apsley 46-34 in Edenhope last weekend in what was the Saints’ first game of the year, might yet still prove to be another mover-and-shaker club of 2022. An ever-improving Natimuk side faced a COVID-19-HIT Bombers side and held a younger-than-usual team to 51 goals.
The Bombers took a chance to blood under-17 goal-attack Ella Netherway who had an opportunity to learn from experienced team-mates.
The Rams still did well to close the weekend out 29-51.
The Rams entered 2022 without the help of several experienced players and have started to see some early positive signs of the club’s emerging netballer depth.
They remain a side with significant up-side if its junior talent could stick together in coming years.
Natimuk will host Swifts on its home court this Saturday.
Kaniva-leeor claimed a hard-won victory over Swifts last weekend for its first win of 2022.
And after a 2021 campaign ladder climb, the Tigers would hope this win was a continuation of that re-emergence.
We will have to wait to find out more because Kaniva-leeor sits out this weekend for this season’s impromptu bye round. Last week: Noradjuha-quantong d Natimuk 51 to 21, Kalkee d Harrowbalmoral 46 to 24, Laharum d Rupanyup 72 to 34, Jeparit-rainbow d Edenhope-apsley 46 to 34, Swifts d Kaniva-leeor 40 to 37. This week: Harrow-balmoral v Pimpinio at Harrow, Laharum v Jeparit-rainbow, Natimuk v Swifts, Kalkee v Rupanyup, Noradjuha-quantong v Edenhope-apsley, Pimpinio bye.