Victorian Netball League: City West Falcons topple DC North-East Blaze in final round

CITY West Falcons will contest a sudden-death elimination final after toppling reigning premier DC North-East Blaze in the last round of the Victorian Netball League season.

Maggie Lind has enjoyed another superb season for City West Falcons. Picture: David Crosling

CITY West Falcons will contest a sudden-death elimination final after toppling reigning premier DC North-East Blaze in the last round of the Victorian Netball League season.

The Falcons prevailed 60-57 in the must-win clash to end the home-and-away campaign in third spot, consigning the reigning premier to a fifth-placed finish.

The perennial contender trailed by a goal at halftime before a dominant third quarter gave it a six-goal advantage with a term to play.

The “beautiful combination” of wing attack Maggie Lind and goal shooter Jane Cook proved decisive, while Jacqueline Newton and Madeline Balson shone in defence.

“Blaze threw everything they had at us,” Falcons coach Marg Lind said.

“They kept trying different combinations to try and get on top of us, but we resisted at every opportunity, which was really good.

“We had a small patch of about five minutes (in the third quarter) where we just had a bit of courage and went for it.”

The Falcons will face Hawks Netball in an elimination final at the State Netball Centre next Wednesday night.

The Hawks have lost their past four matches and went down 63-46 to City West in Round 16.

“I think they’ll be hungry,” Lind said of her team’s next opponent.

“They’ll be hard to beat and it will be anybody’s game.

“They’ve probably struggled having to play teams that have got ANL players back in, but that was their advantage in the first place as they didn’t have any.

“Netball Vic needs to have a good look at it because it’s really affected the league, but I don’t think that’s going that’s going to change to be honest. Moving forward, clubs are going to have to be clever with who they select.”

The Falcons were eliminated in the opening week of finals last year and Lind said the title race was wide open.

“They’ll all be tough. It’s a pretty tight four, to be honest, and anyone could win it,” she said.

“Obviously we’ve got a hard run because we’re going to have to come from the elimination situation.”

Melbourne University Lightning and Geelong Cougars will lock horns in the major semi.