Central Coast’s key shooter Madeleine Taylor is used to tough challenges in the NSW State Premier League, but a battle against Diamonds and Giants keeper Kristiana Manu'a may be one of her biggest challenges yet.
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Manu’a – who shares the Giants keeping responsibilities with Newcastle’s Sam Poolman – dropped down to play three quarters for the Sutherland Stingrays, but despite her presence in the defensive circle Taylor slotted 42 goals from 45 chances in Heart’s 59-41 win.
“[Taylor] had a big challenge on the night, Kristiana [Manu'a] is really physical and I doubt she’s had that kind of match-up this season,” Heart coach Amber Cross said.
“That said, we were pretty prepared for it, we did our homework on the games last week and we’ve been working on Maddie out of the circle a bit more to combat that.”
“We changed up our attack end, and Maddie got on the move a bit so that Amy [Wild, goal attack] could get into the game. It meant that we weren’t so predictable, Maddie mixed it up with standing and holding, and also breaking out of the circle. It’s a fantastic addition to her game.”
“That change-up served us well in the game this week. Taylor was really strong overall and she recognised what she had to do early on. She stood tall and was a great target for us, shot high volume, high accuracy, and she can be quite pleased with herself.”
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As well as Manu'a, the Stingrays had all their full cohort of representative players back within their ranks, and that made the 18 goal victory “that much better”, Cross stated.
“We went down to Eastwood Ryde and that was a bit of a wake-up call for us [two weeks ago], so to bounce back against UTS Sparks and Sutherland while they have their representative players back and still get the win gives us a lot of confidence,” Heart’s head coach said.
“[The defeat against the Hawks] was the loss we had to have, it meant that we looked at the problems we may have later in the season, worked on them, and now we’re seeing the results in the second round of fixtures against these squads at full-strength.”
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Elsewhere at Sydney Olympic Park, Central Coast’s under 20 squad scored a tight two goal victory over the Stingrays, 48-46. The win puts Heart’s juniors on 10 points and in third place, two points clear in a play-off position.
In the opens, Newcastle’s deadeye Sabina Gomboso and versatile mid-court star Victoria Aoake came face to face on Court 3, with Gomboso’s North Shore United walking away with the 57-56 win.
GWS Fury’s defeat sees them slip to fifth on the ladder after their fourth defeat in as many weeks. Aoake’s squad now rest two points below North Shore, with a 4-5 record, and will be looking to turn their fortunes around in the last five weeks of the competition.
TABLE: Central Coast, ERNA (16), Manly Warringah, North Shore (10), GWS, Sutherland (8), UTS, Panthers (2).