A SLICK and well-drilled Sandhurst has fired an early warning shot to its premiership rivals with a dominant 33-goal win over Gisborne on the Bulldogs' home court.
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The Dragons, superbly led by premiership-winning skipper Meg Williams and classy defender Sophie Shoebridge, beat the Bulldogs 66-33.
Following a tight and competitive first quarter in which Sandhurst built a two-goal advantage at the break, the Dragons took control of the contest in the second quarter to lead by nine goals at the main break.
The Dragons' second half was simply breathtaking as they increased their lead to 18 at three quarter time before producing an even more stunning 20 to five final term.
It was an astonishing performance, even for a team that has enjoyed so much premiership success over the past five seasons, and one that even left their three-time premiership coach Tamara Gilchrist a bit surprised.
"I couldn't have been happier with that and we are only going to get better from there," she said.
"We certainly had our lulls. There were lots of times we needed to improve what we were doing, but the girls communicated on the court, which we talked about at quarter time, and we were able to fix what wasn't working.
"We were really keen to get down here and see where we were at early on. It's hard to tell with the pre-season you do, we all think we are doing a great job, but it was good to have a good solid hit-out and see where we were at."
A pleasing feature of the win for the Dragons was it coming at a venue they have struggled at in recent seasons.
On a day where all seven players who took to the court played their role to a tee, Gilchrist gave top honours to wing defence Shoebridge and star midcourter Williams, who moved to centre in the final term after spending the first three at wing attack.
"Sophie was dynamite - we gave her one job today in that wing defence role and she just rose above and beyond," she said.
"We couldn't have asked for any more from Sophie, she is a real team player and does all the hard stuff that needs to be done.
"And as always, Meg Williams was right up there. She is just so consistent the whole four quarters and leads by example.
"She is just a great player."
Gilchrist said there were still parts of the Dragons' game that could be improved, which they would look to do in the lead up to this Friday's clash against Strathfieldsaye at the QEO.
For rival coach Tarryn Rymer, Saturday's loss could not have been more disappointing despite taking to the court without their gun player Maddy Stewart, who was absent at a wedding, and fellow premiership defender Polly Salter.
"We didn't see that coming. We expect Sandhurst to be great, as we always say, they are a well-trained unit and they just keep coming at you," she said.
"We just had that five-minute lull in the second quarter, which they capitalised on, and it was all downhill from there for us.
"They just kept piling the pressure on and we made a few mistakes and went a little bit away from our game plan.
"Let's say that is not the brand of netball we want to put out there, but we've definitely learned a few lessons."
Gisborne will regain Stewart for the Good Friday clash with Kyneton, but will be minus Salter for a few more weeks as she recovers from an ankle injury.
On a tough day for the Bulldogs, goal attack Claudia Mawson and goal defence Kirby Elliott played their first games for the club and showed promising signs for the season ahead.
"I thought they did well, it was just a shame we didn't have our full line-up and couldn't capitalise on our good passages and play a better brand of netball," Rymer said.
She added the strength of Sandhurst goal shooter Bec Smith had posed plenty of problems for the Bulldogs' defence.
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