Bull Sharks netballers have defeated the Darling Downs Panthers 55-50 to keep their Hart Ruby season alive – at least on paper.
In reality a lot of cards will have to fall Bond’s way, thanks in part to the Panthers’ desperation in their final home game of the season.
How it unfolded
The Bull Sharks won their previous encounter with the Panthers by a comfortable 22-goal margin but this time they struggled to gain momentum despite maintaining a consistent lead of five to six goals throughout the match.
What it means
With only one game remaining in the season, the Bull Sharks' chances of reaching the finals have diminished.
“We were really relying on an upset in one of the top teams this week, and unfortunately there wasn’t,” coach Boland said.
“We also needed to beat the Panthers by a whole lot more in order to boost our percentage calculation.”
The Bull Sharks’ only hope of making finals lies with a significant victory over the Wildcats next week.
In addition, the Gold Coast Titans would need to suffer a major upset in their match against the Sunshine Coast.
Looking forward
Boland said the team had an inconsistent 2023 campaign.
“We’ve stood up where we needed to stand up, but in other games we’ve dropped off where we know we could have done better.
“We’ve had our share of highs and lows but at the end of the day we’re going to be looking forward to next season and try our best to fix those inconsistencies.”