South Warrnambool's young netball players are thriving and 17-year-old Olivia Marris is a great example.
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The goal shooter, in her first season of Open netball, is showing poise beyond her years and is making her shots as well.
Her accuracy was crucial when the game was up for grabs in the second quarter during the Roosters' 59-32 triumph against North Warrnambool Eagles on Saturday at Bushfield.
The Roosters worked hard for their three-goal quarter-time lead before turning it on the second term.
They were 14 goals ahead by half-time.
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Marris, who scored 40 goals, backed up her 23-goal performance against Warrnambool's Emma Cust last week - one of the league's best defenders.
"She was fantastic," Roosters' assistant coach Will Jamison said.
"At training this week the girls, particularly Liv and Annie (Blackburn) worked on their movement around the goal circle.
"We know Annie is a bit of a target and gets a lot of attention so the fact Olivia stood up and really held her own and was dynamic in the circle, was exciting."
Marris felt she had her best shooting game this season.
"(It was) a lot better than the past couple of weeks," she said.
"The first Koroit game, I was more shooting closer shots."
Marris said she started gaining more confidence in last week's win.
The youngster's long-range goals on Saturday drew praise from coach Leesa Battistello after the match.
Marris said she was receiving great encouragement from the Roosters' experienced players.
"Being a young player and having the older girls look after me every single week, it's amazing, I love it so much," she said.
Blackburn, at goal attack, is helping mentor Marris.
"It just makes me feel so much more confident, she talks to me and she says 'Liv go here, Liv do that' and I'm like 'oh yep, cool'," Marris said.
"And it just always works and she's a great chick and so good to play with."
South Warrnambool is flying along with three wins to start its 2021 Hampden league campaign.
The Roosters had already beaten two other quality sides - Koroit and Warrnambool - before Saturday's win.
Eagles coach Skye Billings said there was plenty for her group to work on.
"We had some very strong connections at some points of the game but we had a lot of lulls," she said.
"So we're just trying to work on a consistent 15 minutes each quarter and no matter who we put on the court just making sure the connections are strong all the way down the court."
She praised the young players who stepped up to Open level in the absence of regular top-graders such as Georgia Corbett who was unavailable.
"I thought every player on the court today really gave their all and followed instructions," she said.
Billings explained Claudia Sextus, Georgia Lynch and Amelia Kline came up from division one and 17 and under.
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