Albury is on the verge of sealing the last available finals spot after toppling fellow contenders, Corowa-Rutherglen, by 10 goals on Saturday.
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The Tigers led at every change to post a 41-31 away win.
“Great win, we know that Corowa’s a tough team, and we match up really well with them, they’ve got high intensity,” Albury coach Olivia Aughton said.
“It’s really great to see the girls come together at the end of the season and put in the hard work we’ve been doing at training and see it actually out on court.”
Jess Fisher-Curnow extended her lead as the league’s sharpshooter, firing 26 goals from 28 attempts at the outstanding rate of 93 per cent.
The interleague representative was shooting at 85 per cent heading into the round 15 clash, while Bree Poole landed 15.
“Our goalers shot some really beautiful shots in what I call their wedgie zone. uncomfortable, but you can put them up,” Aughton said.
The attacking duo joined defender Brigetta Hart as the top performers.
Zoe McLeish posted 16 goals, also featuring in the best with Olivia Sinclair and Stephanie Clancy.
Aughton feels the last few games have been officiated differently.
“There’s been a lot of physicality let go, I don’t know if it’s coming down through the ranks,” she said.
“They’re letting a few things go and for us to be able to adjust (on the run) was good.”
Albury and the home team went into the game on seven wins apiece, with the visitors holding a percentage advantage of 13½.
With just the three games left, the Roos have a tougher run home, facing two top five teams, as opposed to the Tigers one.
The Roos face Yarrawonga (a), Wodonga (h) and North Albury (a), while the Tigers have Wodonga (h), Wangaratta Rovers (a) and Lavington (h).
However, coach Georgie Bruce maintains the team can still push into finals.
“Look, I do, all this game would determine was who was going to be clearly fifth,” she said.
“Albury’s lost games that they shouldn’t have and anything’s possible, we’re still aiming for finals.”
Bruce maintains the fifth-placed outfit played calmer netball.
“The adrenaline maybe got us and we threw some balls away we shouldn’t have,” she said.
“We’ve been playing around 97 per cent over a quarter our way, but that (missing) three per cent equals 12 over a game and 12 per cent ends up equalling a loss.”
Meanwhile in the only other game of the split round, Wangaratta blasted Wodonga, 71-39.
Amanda Umanski destroyed the home outfit with 45 goals, while Kellie Keen shot 26 to join representative player Issy Byrne in the Pies’ best.
Wodonga’s Kylie Murphy shot 20 and Jess Miles 19 goals, with the latter and vice-captain Jess Barton performing well against the rampant visitors.
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