Dennington has stamped itself as a genuine three-peat contender with a win over Kolora-Noorat

The Dogs came back from a nine-goal deficit in the opening term to force overtime in the Warrnambool and District netball qualifying final on Saturday.

The rest, as they say, is history.

Defensive composure translated to attacking threat, booking the reigning premier a second semi-final battle against Nirranda next week.

Dennington coach Sue Fleming praised the versatility of her charges.

“We’ve been carrying some injuries and illnesses the last couple of weeks so we were very nervous,” Fleming said.

“We’ve used versatility all year for this very reason. You can’t just let the game run its course, you’ve got to have some counteraction (when things aren't working).

“The two things we’ve concentrated on are versatility and we’ve worked on patience with the ball. When the heat is on like that, you’ve got to have that composure.

“As a coach, that’s all you can want – to play out what you practice.”

Fleming said her side wouldn’t be set as a top seven leading into finals, instead favouring a squad approach.

“There’s no point setting a top seven because every side you come across is completely different,” she told The Standard.

“If it doesn’t match up, it doesn’t work. I think, always in selection we pick three centre court players, three goalies and three defenders and mix it up each year so we’re well rehearsed.

“Hopefully it’s all down pat then come an awful surprise like we had in the qualifying final.”

Fleming said the Dogs would stick to a winning formula at training as they prepared for a second semi-final clash with Nirranda.

“The disappointing thing for us is that we’ve had some weaker sides on the run home, which hasn’t been helpful with a bye in there as well.

“I think we haven’t been prepared and that’s probably showed the last couple of weeks. This week we were stronger and hopefully we’ll be stronger again next week.”

Kolora-Noorat coach Faye Clarke was disappointed her side squandered a commanding lead but said positives were drawn from the performance.

“To let that lead go is disappointing, but they’re the reigning premiers for a reason and they were never going to give that to us easily,” she said.

“It’s a shame it went into that overtime. But we’ll learn from that. That’s all we can do, learn from it and move on.

“We’ll look to next week and hopefully get another crack.”

Clarke said another strong start would be vital against Timboon Demons in the looming first semi-final.

“A strength of our game is that we are able to get that  jump on a lot of teams,” she said.

“We’ll keep building on that and working on it. We’re only going to learn.

“We’re a new side, and Dennington has been together for a few years. We can only learn and hopefully next week we come away with the win and away we go again.”

Kolora-Noorat is sweating on the fitness of star defender Tania Barbary, who suffered an ankle injury in overtime of the Power’s loss.

The first semi final will be played on Kolora-Noorat’s home court at the Noorat Recreation Reserve.