Nirranda remains unbeaten after win against Panmure but searching for best netball

The Blues won 59-37 at home in the top-four clash against Panmure on Saturday, but the A grade mentor said it wasn't her side's best performance.

"They're a very good team and very competitive, quite strong defensively, but we didn't play four quarters like I would have liked," she said.

"We certainly had passages of play that were really, really good and in the way we like to do things but then there was times where we just did enough to get by to be honest.

"Thankfully we did enough in the end."

Arundell said the Bulldogs had to make her team work 'smarter' after a slow start to the game.

"The pressure they applied resulted us at times not playing smart netball, and I said that to the girls at half time, we needed to play smarter, we were making some bad decisions," she said.

"I felt like after half-time, we started to settle into our game and the way we play and we took control from there.

"Panmure kept coming back at us and felt like if we had a few bad passages they would have come right back.

"I felt our second quarter was a bit of a problem, we threw the ball away and didn't captalise, but after half-time we steadied.

"We know they're a good team so we needed to adapt and play that style of netball."

In the 22-goal win, Amanda Gilbert and Steph Townsend combined for 59 goals while Joanna Couch, Lisa Anders and Katie Ryan were influential across the court.

For the Bulldogs, coach Jess Rohan was excellent while Sharni Smethurst stepped up all afternoon.

The Blues - like all teams - are battling injuries, illness and unavailabilities, with Arundell confirming some of her big guns, such as Cloe Marr were still fighting for full fitness, something that hasn't allowed her time to gel as expected.

"That consistency is something we're looking for, we've been pretty good but we could be better," she said.

"But we've got injuries and unavailability, like a lot of other teams so we're not fully fit just yet."

In the remaining fixtures, Old Collegians defeated Kolora-Noorat 35-29, Merrivale snared a 24-goal win against South Rovers, 67-43.

For the Tigers, who are now sitting in second spot because of the Bulldogs' loss, Jocelyn McDonald, Cloe Pulling and Shelley Fary were standouts, with both McDonald and Pulling combining superbly in attack with 60 goals.

Dennington also banked a vital win in its finals hopes with a 41-38 victory against Russells Creek, with the Dogs sitting in fifth spot.

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