The Bond Bull Sharks netball brains trust is holding its collective breath with news gun shooter Kaylin van Greunen is holed up at her home in Toowoomba with a virus.
The Bull Sharks will play University of Sunshine Thunder for a place in the 2025 Hart Premier League Grand Final on at Nissan Arena on Sunday.
Van Greunen, an outstanding goal shooter whose height, shooting accuracy and rebounding ability would be sorely missed, fell ill earlier this week.
Head coach, Bec Stower, says the circumstances are far from ideal
‘It’s unfortunate, but Kaylin is a tough cookie,’ Stower says.
‘She’ll do everything in her power to get herself right.’
Off the back of a slow start in their eventual loss to Kedron-Wavell Cougars in last weekend’s major semi-final, the Bull Sharks will be forced to think creatively on the training track this week.
“Thankfully we have a couple of very strong, very capable, and very accurate and mobile goal attacks in Mia [Stower] and Kirra Tappenden,” Stower says.
“They’ve proven extremely difficult to defend as a circle pair in the past and we are confident they can do it again if need be.”
The Bull Sharks, who had averaged 75 goals a game up until last week, were restricted to just 48 against the Cougars.
Bond had notched up 73 points against the same opponent the previous week.
“It was an uncharacteristic game for us statistically, and not just from a scoring perspective,” Stower says.
“Cougars won the penalty count 63-49 when normally we only concede 41 penalties per game.
“We also made more than 40 defensive gains, and we’ve won games with half that number in the past.”
The Bull Sharks will face a confident Thunder outfit who qualified for the preliminary final courtesy of a heart stopping one-point win over Gold Coast Titans.
The Thunder has had Bond’s measure all season.
“There’s no doubt we are due to play well against them!” Stower said.
“I think we can.”
The challenges may not end there even if Bond does win their way through to the Hart Premier League decider.
In grand final week Sasha-May Flegler and Kirra Tappenden will participate in an Australian U19s training camp to help prepare for the upcoming World Youth Cup.
“It’ll test us again, that’s for sure,” Stower says.
“It’s an unfortunate quirk of representative scheduling, but sometimes having a talented playing roster throws up a few conundrums like this.”
“Good teams overcome adversity, and I think we are very good team.”