By Holly Slattery
The Bull Sharks continued their Ruby Series netball campaign with a solid 42-35 win against USC Thunder on Tuesday before enduring a 33-point loss to the Panthers on Sunday.
Bond’s Kalei Brighton, who took out Player’s Player for her impressive goal defence in the Tuesday game, says the team was happy to get a taste of success against their Round 1 rivals to start the week.
“It’s always good to get a win on the board. It really lifts our team spirit and makes all the training feel worth it,” she said.
“[Thunder] came out with a bit more intensity than in our last game and they were hungry to get a win, but we went in with a bit more confidence knowing that we’d already won against them, and we could do it again.
“Last time we played them was the first game of the season, so it was very panicked and rushed and we didn’t know each other’s game styles, but the second game we really played to each other’s strengths.
“It was a lot more controlled which made it feel like an easier win.”
Sunday’s game against the Panthers resulted in Bond’s biggest loss of the season with a slow start and small mistakes contributing to a 73-46 defeat.
“We didn’t start out as strong as we should have,” Brighton said.
“We had really good passages of play, but we just weren’t able to execute the little things like offsides and throwing the ball out which lost us the game.”
Brighton says the weekend’s result will fuel the team’s week of training and reignite their drive to register more wins in the coming weeks.
“Coming off a loss we’ll be that bit hungrier to get the win and prove ourselves again,’’ she said.
“We’ll be trying to fix up the little things and put together a 60-minute performance rather than just five minutes of good play here and there.”
The Bull Sharks will have their second clash with the Wildcats at the Nissan Arena on Wednesday before heading to Ipswich to take on the Tigers on Sunday.