BRIGHT’S A graders came agonisingly close to their first win of the season at Benalla on Saturday, but came up short, downed 37-38 by the Panthers.

The first quarter was dominated by the visitors, as Bright pulled away to a narrow three goal lead by the first break, before Benalla managed to pull it back to be three goals up themselves by the half.

From there, it was blow for blow, with neither team able to find any significant distance on their opposition.

Defensively, Bright were resolute, but failed to convert turnovers in the defensive end to goals on the scoreboard.

In the final minutes of the match, with scores locked, Benalla managed to sink a goal, securing the win and denying Bright a positive result.

Co-coach Kate Buckley said her side did a lot right, but weren’t on top of their game for long enough.

“It was definitely a tough ending for us,” she said.

“We started really well actually, we got a pretty good lead early, we were up by four goals in the beginning - it had kind of been our downfall from the previous weeks, we hadn’t been able to get going early.

“I think we had overworked ourselves in the first quarter, and we just weren’t able to stick with them, we weren’t able to match the pace they set in that second quarter.

“We were pretty even for the rest of the game, for the next three quarters pretty much it was back and forth, goal for goal, until they scored the winning goal in the last 30 seconds of the game.”

Buckley said shooting accuracy was not where it needed to be to secure wins, but there was still a lot of positives.

“We played well, but similar to the last couple of weeks we just can’t really convert in that goal ring, which is frustrating as a goaler myself,” she said.

“We’ve got a couple of different shooting options we have been trying, there are maybe three of us who have been rotating through there – we haven’t found one that’s working better than the others, so it all depends on match-ups.

“We’ll definitely be practising our goals more during the week.

“Our defence is definitely consistently doing their job and playing their roles, particularly our young gun Molly Whitty – she got best-on once again, her second week in a row, but she’s just showing us what she’s capable of, the level of skill and determination she’s got is fantastic.”

Bright hosts an undefeated Whorouly this weekend, with the match set to be a terrific hit-out.

“Whorouly are going to be tough – if we can play like what we played in the first quarter against Benalla, we shouldn’t have any issues,” Buckley said.

“I think it’ll be a close game, hopefully we can get the win, but I think it will come down to our shooters in the end.

“This weekend against Whorouly, if everybody focusses on their role, and not let things get to them and keep that positive mindset, then we do have the potential to have a very good game.”