Community News - providing readers with the very latest in local news, sport, entertainment and more.
Camera IconCommunity News - providing readers with the very latest in local news, sport, entertainment and more. Credit: Community News

Netball: Western Stong clinches Australian Netball League crown

Julian WrightEastern Reporter

A 16-GOAL victory over Vic Fury on the weekend led to the Western Sting being crowned Australian Netball League (ANL) Champions for the first time.

Egged on by a passionate home crowd at the State Netball Centre, a dominant two quarters either side of halftime built the platform for the historic win.

Fury established an early scoreboard advantage in the first quarter, but the home side weathered the onslaught to find their rhythm and level the scores by the quarter time break.

PerthNow Digital Edition.
Your local paper, whenever you want it.

Get in front of tomorrow's news for FREE

Journalism for the curious Australian across politics, business, culture and opinion.

READ NOW

In an almost mirror image to the beginning of the game, the opening stages of the second stanza saw Fury again assert their authority, skipping out to a three goal lead.

The seven-goal buffer from halftime was doubled in the blink of an eye as Sting shut their opponents out of the penultimate quarter to hold a 14 goal lead at the final break.

The home side responded in kind though, reaffirming their authority in the final 10 minutes to eventually secure a historic 63-47 victory.

Head coach Michelle Wilkins praised her players’ commitment to each other.

“I don’t think I’ve coached a team who works as hard for each other as this group,” she said.