By Grace Knight
The Bull Sharks have suffered tough losses in the opening round of the 2023 Sapphire and Ruby netball seasons.
The Sapphire team played impressively against the three-time reigning premiers the Cougars but went down 70-52.
After the Cougars’ early start in the first quarter the Bull Sharks fought back to pull the margin back time and time again.
In the final five minutes of the game the Bull Sharks were down by nine points but after some small errors the Cougars’ experience and skill proved too good for the Bull Sharks this time around.
Bond Netball Operations Manager Kim Boland said the Cougars were the team to beat this season, so the Bull Sharks had learned a lot from this game.
“It’s obviously disappointing to lose but it was really pleasing to see the girls hold their own,” Boland said.
“The girls fought hard all game long, but the Cougars are definitely the benchmark team for the Sapphire Series.
“As (Bond Head Coach) Bec Stower said, you can’t allow errors to happen in a game against the Cougars because they’ll punish you for it, and that’s what they did.”
Despite the Cougars having a number of accomplished players, the Bull Sharks’ young team consisting of three 17-year-olds and four Sapphire debutantes, the Bull Sharks played an exceptional game against the likes of the Firebirds training partners and ex-Sunshine Coast Lightning players within the Cougars team.
Kim Boland said that moving forward the Bull Sharks will be reviewing the game, fixing their errors and placing a focus on playing their own game.
“We’ve definitely taken a lot of learnings out of this, and we were also very pleased with a lot of things but again there’s those small things that we need to work on,” she said.
“In particular, those last five minutes we needed to stay focussed and in the game, but also for us to score 52 goals on a team that’ve been undefeated premiers for the last three years, it’s really pleasing to see the volume that we can put up against a team like this.”
The Ruby team also put up an incredible fight, but ultimately errors in the third quarter cost them the game, finishing up 44-36.
The Ruby Bull Sharks played an exceptional first half and were leading at half time.
Unfortunately, they then left the door right open for the Cougars to get their eight-point lead in the third quarter and struggled to bring back the margin in the final quarter.
Much like in the Sapphire squad, the Cougars’ Ruby squad have been in the finals for the past several years, so they are another benchmark team for the Bull Sharks to aspire to.
“We actually drew in the fourth quarter and we saw plenty of ball but we just struggled to convert it,” said Boland.
“Despite this, it was really pleasing to see that three of the four quarters we were able to hold our own, it was just that third quarter where we let it slip through our fingers.
“I always say that you learn more from a loss than you do from a win, so we will go home, reflect on our errors and come back next week ready to bring our best into the Titans game.”
In other news, the Bull Sharks Development Pathways team played their first game in the local EPL open competition and took out their round 1 game with an excellent win on Friday night against the Darling Downs Panthers.
Despite being an open age competition, the Development Pathways team is made up of some of Bond’s training partners along with a number of 15 and 16-year-old girls who were selected from the Bond trials.