Championship: Falcons hand out lesson to ‘uncharacteristic’ Monash

A 16-6 opening quarter was the catalyst for a rampant City West Falcons to defeat Monash by 10 goals at the State Netball and Hockey Centre on Wednesday night.

Falcons Goal Shooter Julia Knott shot a freakish 29 from 30 attempts as her Falcons teammates walked all over Central in the first term in 50-40 win.

Knott’s phenomenal shooting began from the 7 minute mark of the first quarter, not missing one of her next 21 shots she put up.

Missing Lauren Tscharke and Tegan Ashmore, Monash were sluggish out of the blocks missing their opening three shots on goal.

Combined with some way-off passing and lackadaisical full-court defence, Monash looked scratchy at best in the first half.

The in-form defensive duo that is Georgie Davenport and recently selected Victorian Fury member Helen Barclay were troubled with the Falcons direct play.

Davenport made her case for Monash’s best player as she consistently got a hand to many passes.

However the weight of possession the Falcons were able to enjoy proved far too much, as City West scored with relative ease.

The 10 to 11-goal buffer remained to the Falcons’ advantage throughout the match, as Monash struggled for any consistency in the frequency of their scoring.

Natalie Tommasini was a solid contributor playing a full match at Wing Defence and Centre, while Sarah Main, despite letting herself down in front of goals, was lively in her first full match for near-on six weeks.

Stacey Northey was efficient in front of goals, goaling 20 of her 26 attempts.

Speaking post-match to monashuniversitycentral.com.au, Coach Leesa Maxfield labelled her side’s effort as “uncharacteristic” after the positive steps taken forward in the last month.

“We really let ourselves down in the first quarter,” Maxfield said.

“When you lose the first quarter by 10 goals and then lose the match by then goals…you don’t need to be a genius to work out where we went wrong.”

Maxfield pointed to her side’s slow starts as being a thorn in their side.

“We were simply too slow. We weren’t making our passes, we weren’t making our shots when we needed to and we didn’t apply any pressure.

“To their credit, they seem to rise to another level when we play them. They shot extremely well.”

Monash now face the ninth-placed UB Ballarat Pride on Wednesday night on Court 1 at the State Netball & Hockey Centre.

FINAL SCORE: Monash University Central 40 def. by City West Falcons 50

MUC SCORERS: Stacey Northey 20 (77%); Sarah Main 14 (67%); Stephanie Tyrell 6 (50%)