IT’S no surprise that sisters Jaymie and Emily Finch are goalies.
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They have honed their shooting skills on a homemade court in their Timboon backyard complete with concreted-in goal posts — one for netball and one for basketball.
Jaymie, 19, and Emily, 17, have spent countless hours competing against each other and their father Peter for bragging rights.
“Dad’s the rough one,” Jaymie said. “He contacts all the time.”
Their father Peter, a 100-game-plus Cobden footballer, was responsible for creating the concrete court but he wielded little influence when first Jaymie in 2012, and then Emily last year, left Timboon Demons and joined Hampden league club Camperdown -— Cobden’s arch rival.
Together the sisters have formed a formidable goal-scoring duo for Camperdown this season.
At the start of the year, rivals were wondering where Camperdown’s goals would come from in the absence of towering goalie Narelle Welsh, who left in the off-season.
Jaymie, who is in her third season with the Magpies, was expected to shoulder the scoring burden but Emily, who played just two matches last season, stepped up to join her. They have become a tough combination to defend.
Jaymie, who plays predominantly at goal attack, is slick around the court and a cool shooter under pressure while Emily is an athletic shooter, renowned for her accuracy.
While they are an attacking team on the court, off it, there is plenty of friendly banter and rivalry.
With the Magpies having an inexperienced attacking end, Jaymie has become a coach to Emily.
“I tell her what to do,” she laughed.
“She can play. Everyone says we argue but I call it constructive criticism. Tracey (coach Tracey Baker) says we are allowed to say what we want to each other but not so others can hear it.”
Emily has a different take.
“We argue a little,” Emily said.“She tells me where to go and to get out of her way. I do most times what I’m told but sometimes it’s hard.”
Emily said she enjoyed learning from her older sibling.
They have played alongside each other for years in recreational mixed netball and basketball teams as well as Timboon Demons’ 17 and under premiership in 2011. But they keep tabs on each other’s shooting performances. According to league statistics, Emily has scored 343 goals so far this season while Jaymie has 331, but Jaymie begs to differ. “We keep count, Emily always looks them up,” Jaymie said.
“One week they wrote us down wrong. They gave me 12 and she had 20 something when it was me who had more.” The Australian Catholic University nursing and paramedical student said it was all part of the fun.
The fun gets serious today when the Magpies face a crunch round 17 match against fourth-placed South Warrnambool at the Friendly Societies’ Park.
The sixth-placed Magpies are a win behind fifth-placed Portland and six points behind the Roosters. They know a win today would bring them within two points of South, which has a tough match next week against second-placed North Warrnambool Eagles, and give them a shot at sneaking into the finals at the death.
If the Roosters win, they would secure a finals berth and kill the Magpies’ hopes.