Koroit has been one of the greatest open netball teams to grace the Hampden league but the Saints are now having to learn to fight for every win, according to coach Stacey O'Sullivan.
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The Saints gritty come-from-behind victory over North Warrnambool Eagles on Saturday showed O'Sullivan that her side is capable of digging deep.
"This is what we are going to try and concentrate with these girls and getting them to knowing how to fight," she said after the 43-42 victory.
"Most of these them have come from teams that have won most weeks and we're finding that we arent dominating so we have to come from behind and win sometimes. You've got to know how to dig and push."
O'Sullivan said there was still a lot to look forward to unity wise for the Saints' top-grade side.
"We haven't really had a training together yet with all of us at once so that'll be nice if we can do that in the next couple of weeks," she said.
"We have nurses and people who work shift work and girls on school camps and obviously Anzac Day and the May Races caused people to not be at training.
"Hopefully the second half of the season we'll start to be a little more controlled and be able to work together as a team."
MORE NETBALL: Close but no cigar for much-improved Seagulls outfit
The Eagles led by as much as six goals early and were up by three closing in on full-time but the Saints found a way to win.
Coach Jamie Barr said her side needed to stick to its guns when under pressure.
"We just have to play our own brand of netball," she said. "Koroit are so good at getting people to play the way they want to play and we had a chat about how we want to make sure we play the way we do.
"When we did that today that's when we were able to get six goals up."
The first-year mentor said her side knew it was coming up against the benchmark and that it needed to learn from the experience.
"We knew this was going to be a really big test for us they are always the benchmark and no matter where they are on the ladder they will come hard," she said.
"We talked about it at the start that we needed to learn some stuff from this game and I think we did that."
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Koroit have been one of the best netball teams to grace the Hampden league but their open grade side is now having to learn how to fight for every win.
The Saints gritty come-from-behind victory over North Warrnambool Eagles on Saturday pleased their coach Stacy OSullivan.
We are going to try and concentrate with these girls on knowing how to fight, she said.
Most of these them have come from teams that have won most weeks and we are finding that we arent dominating so we have to come from behind and win sometimes.
You have to know how to dig and push.
Sean Hardeman
I'm a sports journalist for the Warrnambool Standard who covers a number of different sports across the south-west of Victoria. I enjoy watching cycling, surfing, football, soccer and Formula 1.
I'm a sports journalist for the Warrnambool Standard who covers a number of different sports across the south-west of Victoria. I enjoy watching cycling, surfing, football, soccer and Formula 1.
