Merrivale is getting used to being flexible.
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The Tigers continued their winning ways on Saturday with a 50-34 victory against Russells Creek at Mack Oval.
They are sitting third with a 5-1 record and are behind undefeated Nirranda and second-ranked Timboon Demons which is also 5-1.
The Tiges welcomed playing-coach Elisha Sobey back from injury (calves) while recruits Jess Haberfield and Jess McKenzie returned after being unavailable last week.
On Saturday, they were missing goal defence Kelsey Perry who was unavailable.
"Again we had a change of combinations today, so we made changes every quarter again," Sobey said.
"Which I'm not against but it does take a little bit to get used to for the girls to get back in the swing of things."
Reliable goal keeper Cloe Pulling played at goal defence and captain Olivia Darcy played goal keeper in Perry's absence.
Sobey, who had her legs heavily strapped, said she got through her return game well.
"I felt pretty good, I've just got to keep moving that's the key for me," she said.
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But the regular wing attack took some precautions and put star goalie Jess Haberfield at wing attack during the first half.
"She's probably my most comfortable choice at wing attack because she plays goal attack and she's very agile," Sobey said.
Sobey instead played centre.
"I just wanted to slowly ease in instead of jumping in where I've got to start off really quick with my calves," she said.
While Sobey felt her group was complacent late in the first quarter but was happy with how it responded.
"We showed that we can lull but we can kind of just give ourselves a kick up the bum to get back into it again," she said.
The coach was thrilled to give teenager Layne Porter minutes who played wing defence and wing attack.
"She's got a lot of ability and she needs more court time in the A grade," Sobey said.
Creekers went into the clash without their goal shooter Sarah Forbes who was unavailable.
Co-captain Jessica Quinlivan, a goal defence, felt Creekers put in a good performance.
"We were rebounding after a pretty disappointing loss last week so it was good today to see us go back to fundamentals and we did play a lot better than the previous round," she said.
"We knew it was going to be a tough game, but having said that I actually think we did hold some of our key structures very well on the court."
Listen to Allansford coach Ben Price on this week's edition of the Main Break podcast:
The co-skipper said defence had been a focus.
"We have really been working on defensive pressure down the court," she said.
"Today it still came in pretty quick to Ash (Ferguson) and I down in the defensive end so we'll continue to work on that."
Merrivale will face Allansford at home in round seven while Creekers are playing away against Panmure.
In other results, Dennington beat Allansford 38-21, Nirranda enjoyed a 70-36 win over Old Collegians, Panmure thumped Kolora-Noorat 78-34 and Timboon Demons scored a resounding 69-28 victory against South Rovers.
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