MARYBOROUGH coach Anika Munn hopes a convincing win over Castlemaine can be a launching pad to an improved second half of the season.
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On a massive day for the club, highlighted by the senior footballers breakthrough win, Maryborough won 86-37.
The Magpies' 49 goal margin was the same as that in their round one clash against Castlemaine.
It lifted the Magpies to sixth place on the ladder after their nearest rivals - South Bendigo and Strathfieldsaye - both suffered losses.
Maryborough set up the win with a dominant first quarter and was able to extend its lead throughout the contest.
The Magpies' were ignited by an accurate shooting performance from their star Jordan Macilwain and a class midcourt effort from Eliza Roughead, who has made her name in defence this season.
There is a feeling from Munn - and other BFNL netball coaches - that Maryborough is a far better side than its 3-6 record at the halfway mark of the season indicated.
With a block of three games to come against bottom-placed Kyneton, South Bendigo and Kangaroo Flat, the first-year Magpies coach was hopeful of building some much-needed momentum.
"I'd like to think this win can be the start of something - a test will be how we go against South Bendigo in a few weeks," she said.
"We lost against them in the first round, so it will be interesting to see how we come up against them this time."
The Magpies will have a few players missing next week against Kyneton, giving Munn a chance to promote some of the club's talented juniors.
"We'll have the likes of Ella Tranter, potentially Maggie Tranter, coming up from under-17s," she said.
"It gives us a good chance to get a bit of experience into them."
Meanwhile, Golden Square retained its position at the head of the league ladder with a 16 goal win over Kangaroo Flat.
The 62-46 result was the Roos' third straight defeat and leaves them now two wins behind fourth-placed Eaglehawk.
The clash between last season's grand finalists was highlighted by a pair of brilliant goal shooting performances from Bulldogs ace Gabe Richards and Roos star Ruby Barkmeyer.
Richards finished with 52 goals from 58 attempts. The dual sporting star converted a perfect 15 goals from 15 attempts in the second quarter and nine from nine in the final term.
Barkmeyer, who was her side's major contributor with 41 goals, believed anything less than a full four quarter effort was always going to spell trouble against the Bulldogs.
"Our intensity needs to stay up the whole game and I think we dropped it a bit in the second and third quarters and let them get a few (goals) ahead," she said.
"From there it was too hard to get back into the game.
"Gabe is a great target for them and she was unstoppable."
Golden Square's Meg Gilbert was the standout defensve player from both sides.
Sandhurst remains in second position following a 75-49 victory against Strathfieldsaye.
The Dragons goal pairing of Rebecca Smith and Heather Oliver proved a handful for the Storm.
Smith scored 39 goals from 45 shots, and Oliver 35 from 39 shots.
Their task was made simpler by some accurate feeding into the ring by midcourters Meg Williams and Brooke Bolton.
In other games, Eaglehawk maintained the pressure on the league's top three with a convincing 53-35 win over South Bendigo and Gisborne downed Kyneton 67-32.
Losses to Strathfieldsaye and South Bendigo and a win to Marybrough leaves all three teams with a 4-6 record.