The Bull Sharks may have fallen just short in their Hart Ruby and Sapphire League Elimination Finals last weekend, but behind the scenes the mood remains upbeat.
For good reason too.
Bond has never had both its teams in finals in the same season.
To have achieved this after a significant franchise rebuild just two years ago is pretty impressive.
And to have the Sapphire team claw its way to fourth on the ladder after finishing dead last in 2023 is even more so.
You’d reckon Head of Netball and Ruby Coach, Kim Boland, and Sapphire Head Coach, Bec Stower, have earned the opportunity to sit back and celebrate their progress.
They’re happy of course. But they aren’t relaxing. Not yet anyway.
New junior development programs are firing up. There are also two Elite Premier League teams approaching finals. Both are filled with the next wave of Bond Bull Sharks talent and with October trials for the next batch of Ruby and Sapphire Bull Sharks approaching, there’s plenty of analysis that needs doing.
Still, the pair who’ve been joined at the hip since Stower’s arrival at Bond last year, are justifiably proud of what they’ve achieved.
Both say the signs were promising early.
For Boland it was seeing the teams look so sharp in early trial games.
“We put them up against some men’s teams, and they didn’t take a backward step. There was a real energy about them that made me think they’d turned up to have a real go this year.”
Boland was also excited to see plenty of returnees after the Ruby team’s 2023 campaign.
“I knew what I was working with, so to see some familiar players return ready and raring to go gave me a good place to start from.”
Stower felt confident when she first saw the settled 2024 squads on paper.
“We’d had some significant inclusions,” she says.
“Having Mia [Stower] join as a former Firebird was obviously pretty big for us. Sasha May Flegler and Jayden Molo’s arrival too. I knew what they were capable of because I’d seen them at Queensland U19s level. Top to bottom though both squads just looked really balanced and that had me feeling pretty good about where we were at.”
Stower says it’s also gratifying that a few calculated risks paid dividends.
“Jayden [Molo]had barely played WA, but that’s what we needed from her. Sasha [May Flegler] hadn’t played a single Ruby or Sapphire game before arriving, so we had to take a bit of a punt there. We needed Maddie Ryan to turn up physically ready for the demands of playing GD for us, and she did exactly what we asked her to do. And there’s no doubt that we rolled the dice of Lauren [Aubrey] as a tall GK. She’d been overlooked elsewhere, but we saw something in her. She’s had a brilliant year.”
It's been far from plain sailing the whole way, though. There’s been plenty of challenges.
The arrival of the two-point super shot into Ruby and Sapphire competition has had a dramatic impact.
“It’s changed the way the game is played, and it forces teams to experiment with various strategies,” says Stower.
“If your system doesn’t work, or if you don’t have the players able to execute what you need, a game can get out of control so quickly.”
There’s no doubt the evenness of both competitions made for gruelling season.
Injury and illness threw several curveballs. So too the revolving door of players due to representative and Firebirds Futures commitments. A curious mid-season form dip affected both teams similarly too.
“This is probably where we will focus a lot of our attention when we look at what improvements can be made.” Boland says.
“You can’t do much about bad luck, but we’ll certainly have a good look at whether there’s ways we can juggle things that may make life a bit easier for everyone across a long season.”
Something that will never be easy are end of season player reviews.
Every Ruby and Sapphire player will have one.
For many, it will be a welcome chance to reflect on improvements made and jobs well done.
For some, sadly, it’ll be the end of the road.
Boland says it’s never easy to part ways with players, but churn is part and parcel of a healthily evolving environment.
“We can’t afford to sit still,” she says.
“We’ve got to keep looking at ways to get better. Just as we're stoked to see so many of our girls come along this season, there are gaps in our performance that have probably been the difference between close losses and important wins.
Stower agrees.
“In the Sapphire team, we drew with Ipswich Jets who finished top of the ladder, and we beat the second-placed Gold Coast Titans twice. The one team we struggled with was Sunshine Coast Thunder, but we drew them in an elimination final. Had we not dropped a few close games to teams we should have done better against perhaps we finish second instead of fourth and earn a double finals chance. The margins are just so tight at this level.”
“And that's why when players haven’t quite had the years they'd hoped for or if combinations don’t quite work, we have to look at others who have earned a chance or who have something we need in order to be better,” Boland says.
“It’s really, really hard, but that’s the reality of sport.”