Dennington holds on for thrilling one-goal win, Allansford banks maiden win of WDFNL netball season

After holding on for a thrilling 38-37 win in A Grade on Saturday in the Warrnambool and District league against another improving outfit in Timboon Demons, the boxes are slowly being ticked across the board.

"We've been slowly trying to learn the systems, for the girls it was a really good three quarter effort," Dogs mentor Sue Fleming said of the weekend's win.

"For us, we've done a lot of work on starts - we put a lot of emphasis on starting quickly - and the girls got the first three turnovers of the game which was impressive.

"If we didn't it could have gone the other way for those first three goals, because let's face it Timboon are a great side, I did warn the girls they don't stop, and we got a taste of that.

"If they want to win, they have to work for it and we desperately wanted it. It was a great test of character, we're a really young side, there's no veterans so for me it was uplifting."

Fleming said her two wins, two loss team was showing signs it was gelling as a group.

"I think we're improving as a team, and picking the best (on Saturday) was definitely difficult, I think the girls would agree we probably play two really good quarters," she said.

"But we're really coming along nicely which is great."

She added the likes of Ruby Wright and Molly Evans - coming from up A reserve - had given the group "more versatility" in Saturday's win.

Allansford, meanwhile, clinched its maiden win of the 2022 season, defeating Kolora-Noorat by 38 goals, 63-25.

"It put a lot of belief in the girls, Allansford haven't really been up there so they don't know what it's like to cement a really good solid win like that," coach Rachel Mungean said.

Mungean said it was obvious confidence was growing within the group with little things on court.

"The confidence our goal shooter Tessa (Jewell) had when she turned around pushed up a shot, it went in and Georgia Martin also gave strong drives from wing attack," she said.

"I changed her from centre and it added another dimension and to score 20-3 in the last quarter the girls certainly didn't stop.

"There is a lot of room for improvement, some bad passes but all in all, we played really well as a team."

Youngster Amelia Membrey was also impressive in her quarter on Saturday, according to Mungean.

Across the remaining matches, the Nirranda machine rolled on with a 50-33 win against a highly-competitive Merrivale, Panmure proved too strong for Russells Creek 55-22 and Old Collegians went down 48-39 to South Rovers.

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