Sandhurst makes statement with strong rebound against South Bendigo

The Dragons, who are chasing a historic fourth-straight A-grade premiership in 2021, are facing a pair of weekends on the sidelines, courtesy of back-to-back byes and won't return to action until May 28.

For a team that fully embraces and thrives in the heat of battle, the long wait will present a challenge to the Dragons.

But Gilchrist is backing her players to get through the enforced layoff and to carry on their early-season good form, which finds them 4-1.

"We are going to try and keep things as normal as possible and I'm sure we'll train very hard," she said.

"We might look at our next couple of Tuesdays at doing some sort of fitness session, not so much netball focused, but just to keep the girls interested and firing for the next game.

"It is really hard going into a game with two weeks off and then being able to front up. It takes a lot of self-discipline to be ready."

Gilchrist could not have been happier with her side's performance last Saturday, culminating in a 40-goal victory over finals aspirant South Bendigo.

It was the perfect response to a narrow loss the previous weekend to serious premiership contender Kangaroo Flat.

"Coming off the loss we had a really great week on the track, identified a few things we needed to fix and really came out firing and ready to go," Gilchrist said.

"Dropping two games in a row would have been some concern, we wouldn't have been too excited by that prospect at all, but our girls really know how to identify issues out there on the court.

"They don't need to come off the court and wait for me to say anything, they do all that themselves."

There was little doubting the previous week's loss to the Roos had served as a strong motivator for the Dragons against the Bloods.

"I just think there were a few unforced errors that hurt us, which you just can't afford against a quality side like that," Gilchrist said.

"And Abbey Ryan shot the lights out, so they were able to capitalise on our turnovers, and that just gave them an edge.

"Credit to them it was a really great contest, but we can't wait to have another go."

A feature of Saturday's win was again the Dragons versatility, with Heather Oliver, Bec Smith and Kelsey Meade rotating through the goal circle, Oliver spending time in the defensive midcourt, and Ruby Turner alternating between wing defence, goal defence and goal keeper.

"It was great to be able to switch Ollie from goals down to wing defence, not every team has those sorts of options, so we are lucky," Gilchrist said.

"But 4-1 is fine with me - we always aim for a top-three finish and from there the rest takes care of itself."

A convincing four quarter effort against the Bloods was led by star midcourter and captain Meg Williams and brilliant goal keeper Imogen Sexton, while young centre Shae Clifford continued her strong start to life at Sandhurst.

READ MORE:

Pies fly up ladder after first season win over Bulldogs

Our journalists work hard to provide local, up-to-date news to the community. This is how you can access our trusted content: