Mount Gambier and District Netball Association round preview

Zodiacs v Hobitz

As the Mount Gambier Netball Association season continues, we look ahead to round 4 this Saturday.

Players will test their fitness backing up after the midweek round last night and they will be back on the court three days later.

One of the Saturday games being played to keep an eye on is Zodiacs v Hobitz.

After Zodiacs and Hobitz both won their games on the weekend, it looks like an exciting match-up awaits spectators.

Zodiacs A Grade coach Tamara Ferguson is looking forward to the challenge, with her excitement evident when speaking with The SE Voice.

“(We are) looking forward to another challenge, especially since Hobitz in the past have been the benchmark in the competition and to see how we sit in comparison to the other teams,” she said.

Ferguson said her team had focused on balancing between the defence and offence, but also development for connection since there was not much of a pre-season in the team, meaning the first few rounds were spent learning each other’s play.

“I was not really sure what to expect for our first few games and how we would measure up to our opponents, especially since we are a new team, but we have performed well so far, only losing our first game by two goals and winning our second,” she said.

Meanwhile for Hobitz in round 1 they lost against Intruders with a score of 87-47 and in round 2 they won against Saints with a score of 43-38.

Zodiacs currently sit second on the ladder, with Hobitz in fourth, so this match-up will test how the teams place in the competition.

Intruders v Vicis

While Zodiacs and Hobitz face off on Court 1, the A Grade teams of Intruders and Vicis go head-to-head on Court 2.

Intruders A Grade coach Cath Dycer was able to provide some feedback to the game ahead.

“We have this year in our team a lot of diversity with our players,” she said.

“Which in the past few years is something that we were lacking.

“Our offence and defence work equally hard up and down the court and our players have the ability to switch from offence to defence depending on the direction of play so and yes I believe they are both strong.”

Dycer said she coached an active team, with many of them attend gym sessions, trainings, running and also keep active in the off season doing summer sports.

When questioned about how the team is going so far in the season, Dycer said it was only early days.

“With the season only just starting and Intruders having the bye in round 2 we only played our second game yesterday, so it’s a little too early to say how were have been going,” she said.

“Understandably as the season progresses, I think we will only get better as a team in understanding how each other plays and fine tuning game play and strategies.”

Intruders won their first game with a score of 87-57 against Hobitz and currently are sitting first on the ladder.

In the Vicis corner, they had a bye in their first round but lost against Zodiacs in round 2.

The round 4 games will be taking place at 2.45pm at Olympic Park.