Coach Conrad Francis said the Eagles went into the game short on players with five of the top 10 injured or unavailable, one being the team’s key off-season signing Stephanie Jones who is awaiting visa approval.
‘That being said we still fielded a very experienced team that was capable of getting the win,’ he said.
‘The first half was typical of a season opener and a combination of nerves and early foul troubles saw us having to go to our bench earlier and use them longer then we would have liked.
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READ NOW‘As they say ‘crisis creates opportunity’ and with this Clare Thomson – Boston, another off-season signing, came off the bench and gave us some much needed offence which saw us enter the half time break 13 points behind.’
After a little half time inspiration, the girls hit the floor with energy and narrowed the gap to 9 pts by playing some great defence and successfully executing offences.
However, Francis said the refereeing was not going the team’s way on the night stifling their progress.
‘We ended up losing to a very well drilled team by 21 points in the end,’ he said.
‘Given the youth in the team some very exciting prospects were seen, Clare Thomson-Boston’s 23 pt effort off the bench was easily the highlight and combined with a reinvigorated Amy Chinnery (12 pts).