The Hawks beat cross-town rival Cobram — by a single point no less — to earn their first four points of the Murray Netball League campaign.
In fact, the weekend’s achievement marks Barooga’s first A-grade win since round 13 of the 2022 season, meaning the flood of relief on the Hawks’ home court would’ve been immense in the wake of the 38-37 triumph.
Especially for those who’ve stuck it out through the tough times.
What’s more, Cobram has been in good touch this season, scaling up the magnitude of what Jacqui Douglas’s charges were able to pull off.
“It was just a really great game of netball, the entire team stepped up and played really together as a unit,” Douglas said.
“Because we came off a draw in the previous round, I think they understood how to stay composed in a tight contest.
“Being five goals down at three-quarter-time, they weren’t rattled — they still stepped out there and took charge in that last quarter.
“Our focus was actually taking the pressure off and having the attitude of having nothing to lose, we just focused on playing our game and what we wanted to achieve.
“Cobram-Barooga is a grudge match, obviously, so there’s a lot of nerves coming into that but we tried to focus on what we were there to do and they executed the plan really well.”
The heavily fancied Tigers took a 12-8 lead into quarter-time but Barooga was able to reduce the deficit to three goals by the main break.
However, Cobram built its cushion out to five goals at the final change of ends, leading 27-25 and leaving plenty of ground for the Hawks to make up.
Barooga was able to rally through some fine work from Ash Holt and Kirbey Rudd in the midcourt and attack, coming from behind to seal the narrowest of wins.
Douglas was proud of her entire squad in the wash up of the win.
“It was pretty exciting; they were all up and about as they should be,” she said.
“They’ve worked really hard this season, they’re training hard and they’ve put in a great pre-season so to now have six points on the board, it’s an improvement on last year.
“They’re starting to reap some reward for their hard work.
“Ash was exceptional through the middle ... she’s a real workhorse, she knows her role and she executes its week after week after week. She was really composed out there.
“We’ve transitioned Kirbey into a goaler in the last few weeks and she’s a natural netballer so she’s been able to take on that goal attack role really quickly.”
Barooga’s next test arrives this weekend, facing last year’s grand finalist Mulwala while Cobram takes on the undefeated Rumbalara.
Douglas knows backing up Saturday’s performance won’t be easy, but thinks her side is on the right path with connections across the court starting to form.
“We’ve had a strong defensive season and that was maintained again this week, but we’re just starting to put the pieces together in attack,” she said.
“They’re improving every week.”
