By STEVE MENZIES
Goals were the name of the game for the first round of the KFC Alice Springs Netball Association.
There were more than 1300 goals scored, at an average of 68 a game, as teams adopted an attractive attacking game style.
Neata Glass Giants Bath and Bark under-17 team led the scoring with 63 goals against its sister Giants team.
A highlight of the games was a 47-each draw between Wests Tiarni and Federal Club Eastside in the A Reserves.
Federal opened up a two-goal break in the first quarter and held it through to the term when sharp-shooting by Tiarni Pon with 11 goals, to take her game tally to 37, levelled the scores.
Rovers Complete Construction had an impressive start to its KFC A-Grade season with a 62-19 win against Wests.
The trend of the game was set from the start with Suzi Barter sinking the first five goals of the clash in three and a half minutes.
This sent Rovers on its way to 20-goal first term while Wests took eight minutes to get on the scoreboard and finished the term with six.
Barter, who was called into the Rovers side as the shooter in the absence of recruit Wendy Stafford, combined well with Molly Southam in the Attack circle.
They shared the scoring with Barter netting 32 goals and Southam 30.while missing a total of 27. In comparison, Wests 19 goals came from 52 shots.
This also showed the superiority Rovers enjoyed all around the court, with Lauren Parai in top touch at centre, which kept the ball in the team’s attacking area.
Wests was below full strength and coach Talia O’Cass rotated nine players through the game while Leanne Southam only made one positional change, for a quarter, for Rovers.
Federal Club Eastside also had a comfortable start to the A-Grade season with a 43-16 victory against a gallant Neata Glass Giants A Reserves team.
Giants had initially nominated for B-Grade but decided to go up a grade to the A Reserves and drew the the reigning A-Grade champion first up.
There was a clear difference in the side with the Federal team including Tahlia Lee, Dana Schembri, Katelyn Henwood (all with National league experience) and the next wave of juniors led by Carly Wilson whose straight shooting was in marked contrast to Giants’ missed opportunities.
Wilson was well supported in attack by Simone Tribe to ensure Federal’s score kept ticking over.
Despite being down 26-7 at half-time the Giants, with three players under-17, kept battling to the end and added nine goals while conceding only 17.
in the other A Reserve game Rovers Complete Construction defeated promoted dual B Grade premier Federal Office National Angels 48-24.
A 16 goals to five third quarter powered Seasons CADS to a 45-35 win against Wests Mall Medical in the Yeperenye B-Grade.
The move of 15-and-under player Ruby Mack from goal keeper to goal shooter paid dividends for Seasons as she shot 14 goals as a four-goal deficit at the long break was turned into a seven-goal lead at the final change.
Federal C-Grade sister sides, P&V.Flames and Swifts, had 49-8 and 57-37 wins against Neata Glass Giants and Wests respectively.
Centre Andrea Glover led Rovers BnTz to a 9-4 opening term against Giants Dreamers and then hold on to a 22-19 victory.
Dreamers ran 11 players throughout the game.
Wests and Federal Red had wins in the 17-and-under grade while Rovers Ravens defeated Rovers Raptors.
There was a lot of interest, although not as many goals, in the junior grades on Saturday.
Most of the games were inside the stadium and the stopped for the two 13-and-under games but returned for the 15-and-under clash between two Neata Glass Giants teams.
But the wet conditions did not dampen the spirits of players and at the end only one goal separated the teams 29-28.
PHOTO from Netball Association website archive.