A TENACIOUS Myrtleford A grade squad fell short of a brilliant comeback in their weekend clash with the Bulldogs, downed 41-45.

After a sluggish start which saw the Saints trail by eight goals at half-time, Myrtleford turned it on and brught the margin back to four at the final break.

Defenders Tina Way and Rebecca Piazza produced some brilliant turnovers and catapulted the ball through the midcourt to star shooter Daisy O’ Kane.

The heavens opened in the final quarter, making clean netball all but impossible, but somehow the Saints brought the margin to four goals at the final whistle.

Coach Olivia La Spina said if the squad could find form from the start, they’d be tough to beat.

“It was a bit similar to last week where we just had a bit of a slow start and it just caught up to us in the end,” she said.

“We were able to get in front in the last quarter but just struggled to hold on.

“It was one of those games where the first 15 minutes really cost us in the end.

“Credit to Wodonga, they were a really solid team and have been building for a few years.

“It‘s frustrating, but there are still lots of positives from the game.”

New names to the club, Daisey O’Kane and Maddy Martin, performed well in just their second match with the Saints, and La Spina said everyone was progressing nicely.

“We had three new girls on the court on the weekend with Ava Brock coming up and playing for us, and on netball, to have three girls out of seven new, it does take a lot of getting used to,” she said.

“I think we’ll get there, we have spoken as a team trying to figure out what the best route is to go to make sure we’re setting ourselves up for success from that first centre pass.

“There are lots of positives, and I couldn’t be prouder of the girls in their want to fight back – two weeks in a row we’ve been able to fight back, and you can’t really coach for that, they’ve got to want to fight back themselves for their teammates.

“I felt like Maddy Martin had a really solid game in the midcourt, she found her own in that centre position in the second half of the game and was able to give us that drive and depth that we needed.

“It also allowed Evie (Hughes) to sink back into wing defence for a period of time and get some crucial turnovers, that was really positive.”

The Saints will be back at McNamara Reserve this weekend for the club’s beloved Mental Health Round against Yarrawonga.

“We had a really great win against them late last year, we’ll be able to go in with a lot of confidence knowing that,” La Spina said.

“Yarrawonga have been the pinnacle of A grade Ovens and Murray netball for almost 15 years.

“We know they’re really strong competition and they’ll throw everything at us.

“It’s also a confidence booster knowing we got them last year, and it’s something we can keep building on this week.”

In other matches from the weekend, the B grade squad fought out a gritty 49-49 draw, the C grade (31-52) and under 17s (32-60) came up short, while the under 15s took a win 29-17.