MITIAMO coach Jenny Clohesy believes the Superoos are well placed to shrug off the loss of one of their stars in Saturday’s LVFNL netball grand final.
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The Superoos will be without gun defender Tahnee Cannan for the premiership decider against Pyramid Hill.
The dual sports star will instead suit-up for Bendigo Lady Braves in Saturday afternoon’s SEABL national championship final against Geelong Supercats at Kilsyth Sports Centre.
Cannan, who finished fourth in this season’s league medal count behind joint winners Stacey Rothacker (Bridgewater) and Megan Jennings (Newbridge), was faced with a tough choice after the Lady Braves won through to the championship decider following a conference grand final win against Launceston Tornadoes last weekend.
But Clohesy said Cannan’s absence had not come as a shock to anyone at Mitiamo after she missed several games during the season through Lady Braves commitments.
“We are disappointed, but it’s not news to us,” she said.
“We’ve been putting things in place all throughout the year in case something like this eventuated.
“We are confident in the girls we’ve had coming up (from B-grade) during the year – we have all spots covered in case anything happens.
“The beauty is those players coming up to A-grade have been playing netball and not just sitting on the bench and not getting much of a game.
“They know exactly what they need to do.”
Cannan, who is a co-captain of the Lady Braves this season, said she was disappointed not to be lining-up for the Superoos, but wished her teammates well in their quest to win the club’s first A-grade flag since 2012.
“I love playing netball and Mitiamo is a team I really appreciate,” she said.
“They are so understanding with all my basketball commitments.
“I know they are going to give it a red-hot crack against Pyramid Hill.
“They (Pyramid Hill) are pretty tough and had a great game against Newbridge, but I think we’ll be alright.”
If the Lady Braves are to claim their first national championship since 2007, they will need to overcome a Supercats team which has beaten them convincingly twice this season.
The margin was 24-points when the two sides last met at Bendigo Stadium on July 15, and 26 points at The Geelong Arena in May.
Cannan believed past results would count for nothing when the teams again locked horns.
“From where we thought we’d be at the start of the year to now, we’ve really come together as a team,” she said.
“It’s a great group of girls.
Unfortunately we are missing Chloe Bibby, who was a massive part of our team, but to pull (a conference grand final win) out was awesome, especially when the last six weeks of our season weren’t the greatest.
“We really knew we had some things to work on, but to pull it together in the post-season is amazing.”
