The Standard | TIMBOON Demons coach Hayley Plozza lauded the composure of her players after they held their nerve to win a thriller against Panmure.
The Demons remain in the hunt for a top-three berth thanks to the 48-47 win at Timboon Recreation Reserve on Saturday.
The result, which kept them in fourth, a game behind third-ranked Dennington, came six rounds after they controversially lost by a goal to Nirranda.
“I said to the girls after the game that against Nirranda we felt ‘when are we going to muck up and let them get ahead’,” Plozza said.
“Today we felt we had composure. We had a two-goal lead most of the last quarter and kept control of the ball.”
That narrow buffer meant Plozza was calm as the seconds ticked away in the last term.
She noted every time the Bulldogs cut the margin to one, the Demons regained possession and kept their opponents at bay.
“It was down their end a lot. They’d miss a few, we’d get a turnover and they’d get another intercept,” she said.
“But we were two up at that point and I felt a lot of time had been taken off the clock.
“They converted, they were one down but it was our centre.
“We went down and got a goal quite quickly, then they got another goal to be one down.”
The siren sounded just after the Bulldogs had scored, with the Demons about to launch another attack from the restart.
“We weren’t stressed. It was close but we had the ball. We knew we had to keep control to win the game,” Plozza said.
Demons goal shooter Megan Methven hit a game-high 31 goals while Plozza added 17 at goal attack, converting at about 90 per cent accuracy.
Prue Hunter, playing at goal defence instead of her preferred goal keeper, earned their best-player honours.
Liz Schrama led the scoring for the Bulldogs, dropping 28 goals. Kirsty Williams, Margie Kenna and Kelly Jones were their best.
Plozza highlighted the importance of the win in keeping the Demons clear of a congested mid-table chasing an elimination final berth.
They have 28 points. Allansford (fifth), Merrivale (sixth) and Nirranda (seventh) have 24 points. Below them, Russells Creek is eighth with 18 points, ahead of Deakin University in ninth with 16.
The Kangaroos’ loss to the Sharks on Saturday has all but eliminated them from the finals race.
“Pretty much I knew we had to get Deakin and Panmure, which we’ve done,” Plozza said.
“Hopefully now we can take that extra step and beat Nirranda on the weekend. It’s a home game, hopefully we’ve got home-ground advantage.”
