Coming out of COVID-19 enforced hiatus, the Bombers held their own in a hard-fought opening quarter against White Hills.
But as the match wore on, the Bombers slowly fell out of contention in their first competitive Heathcote and District Netball League match since 2019.
Irrespective of the scoreboard, netball president Mandy Hutchinson said the club was proud of all the efforts of their netballers on Saturday.
“From our point of view – White Hills is very strong and they managed the flow of the game really well,” she said.
“But our defence was pretty strong. That was where we see real potential – so we just need to work on our attack and feeding moving forward.”
With a huge turnover of players from their 2019 squad, Hutchinson said the future of the club looked to be in safe hands with a good balance of youth and experience coming through.
“We've had a huge change-over, some of our young kids have headed off to uni or for work,” she said.
“So we've lost a generation, but now have that next generation coming through. There is real potential there.
“Ellah Gelletly – she played her first game in A-grade and handled the pressure really well."
And it wasn't just Gelletly Hutchinson was full of praise for, with several players catching the president's eye in round one.
“Cassie Broad – she was one of our best on,” Hutchinson said.
“She's a fast nimble player, and really fit as a centre.
“Macey Brereton, she's working with Ash (Bradley) in defence, and is a young gun coming up.
“And Tannah Couchman, in goals and midcourt has a real determination and plays a lovely style of netball.”
“We have a lot of good ingredients, and once you start to get those ingredients mixing together, success will come.”
With Leitchville-Gunbower taking out wins in their under-17 and under-15 matches, Hutchinson further praised the up-and-coming talent at the club.
“It's really promising to have these new young guns coming up, and have some real little stars emerging,” she said.
“White Hills are pretty good netballers, so to get a couple wins over them was great for our club.”
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