BFNL netball powerhouse Sandhurst again underlined its premiership credentials with a ruthless 43-goal victory over Strathfieldsaye on Saturday.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
The Dragons put a tough week behind them by defeating the Storm 68-25 in their round eight contest at Strathfieldsaye.
Sandhurst four-time premiership coach Tamara Gilchrist was quick to dedicate the win to revered club figure Danny Ellis, who lost his a 10-year battle with leukaemia, aged 57, during the week.
Players from both sides lined up before the match to observe a minute's silence for Ellis, with Sandhurst players donning black armbands.
Ruthless 43-goal win
The Dragons did it in style, dominating the contest from the opening whistle.
They signalled their intentions early, scoring the first seven goals of the match and nine of the first 10, before capping a ruthless first quarter with the last six to establish a 19-3 lead at the first change.
The Storm, with 2024 recruit Paynton Jolliffe in solid touch at goal attack, produced their best quarter of the match in the second, scoring 10 goals, albeit finding themselves a further five goals down at half time (34-13).
With skipper Meg Williams dominant in the midcourt and Sophie Shoebridge in control in multiple positions in defence, Sandhurst did not let up in the second half, cruising to a commanding victory.
It was the defensive aspect of the Dragons' performance that most pleased Gilchrist.
"We had a great defensive game; holding a team to 25 goals takes all seven players on the court," she said.
"We really focused on our defensive game today. We had two things we were working on and one was that, to make sure all seven are playing a defensive role and are turning over the ball.
"The other was our centre pass set-up, which I thought we did really well.
"We wanted to tweak a few things that we worked on this week at training, to make sure we set ourselves up for what it's a big couple of games over the next few weeks.
"We need to make sure we on track in that regard."
The Dragons will play Castlemaine next weekend, before back-to-back matches against fellow top-three sides Kangaroo Flat and Gisborne to kick-start the second round of home and away matches.
Gilchrist praised a great captain's game from Williams, who celebrated her 150th game for the club in last week's win over Eaglehawk, lauding her character after frustratingly missing several Dragons and Strikers VNL games through injury early in the season.
'Meg was awesome today'
"I thought Meg was awesome today. It's the little things she does off the ball as well that show how smart she is and what she brings to the team," Gilchrist said.
"It's fair to say it was a frustrating start to the season for her, but I love everything she is doing.
"We'll see what the second half of the season brings from her."
Another feature of the win for Sandhurst was some, at times, amazing goal shooting from Heather Oliver.
![Paynton Jolliffe was a livewire for Strathfieldsaye at goal attack in Saturday's clash against Sandhurst. Picture by Enzo Tomasiello Paynton Jolliffe was a livewire for Strathfieldsaye at goal attack in Saturday's clash against Sandhurst. Picture by Enzo Tomasiello](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/j98Hh85wiUB5yeTBh2fLTR/5b6dbb62-f58d-41eb-804c-630b0fe5754d.jpg/r0_0_4392_2926_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Twelve of the two-time Betty Thompson medallist's 30 goals for the contest came in a frenetic opening quarter.
The Dragons were without star defender Charlotte Sexton due to her Vixens reserves commitments.
They remained in third spot on the ladder, following Gisborne's win over Castlemaine, while Strathfieldsaye held onto fourth, one win ahead of Eaglehawk and Golden Square.
Best for the Storm on Saturday were Jolliffe and defender Jess Mangan.
In honour of Danny
Pleased to have banked another four points, Gilchrist said by far the most pleasing part of Saturday's win was being able to honour Danny Ellis.
"It's been a sad week ... it's hit quite a few of us quite hard," she said.
"I have such respect for people who spend their life around a footy-netball club and Danny was such a pioneer of our club.
"Just his support for football, netball and juniors .... he had a heart of gold.
"He is the reason the club is in the great position it is today.
"To lose someone so loved has made it a very hard week, but it has also brought the club together.
"We have all got around each other and the Ellis family. We had a nice get together on Thursday in The Den; people came and told their Danny stories.
"It's a very sad time to lose such a legend, but hopefully we regroup and we have a big year for Danny."