Seymour made its customary good start against the Bears, being 4-1 up early before the visitors hit back to lead 10-7 at the first break. The Shepparton side feasted on Seymour’s mistakes to widen the gap to 12 goals by half-time. While the sides drew the third term 6-6, Seymour committed a staggering 10 turnovers before the Bears eased away in the final term.

While the wet conditions weren’t conducive to good netball, or the Lions’ fast-paced game, Chapman refused to use it as an excuse.

‘‘The conditions were the same for both sides,’’ he said.

‘‘We had enough of the ball, we just did nothing with it. We need to start taking responsibility and accountability for our actions. At times we had certain players doing their bit, but not everyone.

‘‘It’s disappointing because we played so well against Echuca but went 10 steps backward here. I don’t think they (Bears) played much better than us.’’

The defence end was the standout for Seymour with Bec Bath (‘‘she definitely gave us some kind of aggression and heart’’) and newcomer from Broadford Rebecca Hunter among those to shine, along with midcourter Sarah Douglas.

But Chapman said there was plenty to work on ahead of the trip to top-of-the-table Shepparton United on Saturday.

‘‘There’s no excuses at all, we can’t use age or inexperience as excuses,’’ he said.

‘‘It’s basic skill errors, execution of passes, one handed passes ... basic skills that are not acceptable in A-grade netball. Hopefully we’ll do the hard work on the training track this week and put out a more consistent performance. It’s not as if we’re not getting the ball, we’re making mistakes and costing ourselves games.

‘‘For probably two minutes a quarter we play well but that still leaves 13 minutes when we don’t. If we can start to even that out to play for 10 minutes instead of two ...’’

Chapman also hinted at changes, with an eye to 2014.

‘‘We’re halfway through the year and looking at that. People are playing for their places. There’s a lot of talent coming through the 17s.’’B-GRADE

The Lions B-grade side has been competitive this year and only just failed to peg back the Bears in a 30-28 defeat, with coach Cathy McInerney pointing to some confidence beforehand.

‘‘The weather suited us,’’ she said.

‘‘I think that was probably the leveller. It made us think about what sort of netball we had to play, and that was a short game. We had a really good training run on Thursday after the disappointment at Echuca where we thought we could win, and we played some great netball (against Shepparton), we played in front to the best option available.’’

Seymour was right in the game before the Bears pinched a two-goal lead late in the final term. That was cut back to one, but Shepparton scored off the final centre pass to seal the win.

Rachael Mundy starred going back in defence, along with her team-mate in the circle Jasmine Smith, a newcomer to the club from Adelaide.

McInerney said she wasn’t sure why her side wasn’t finishing off games.

‘‘Have we forgotten how to win? I just can’t pinpoint it. The past few games we’ve worked on getting better starts but the losses we’ve had have been purely because we haven’t been able to finish off games.’’B-RESERVE

Seymour’s B-reserve side had the toughest job of the day, unable to celebrate Sophie Gregson’s 100th game for the club with a win, going down 45-15.

That was despite a great start, with the side up by four early before the Bears took control to lead by four themselves at the first break.

‘‘We just sort of drifted off for the rest of the game unfortunately,’’ coach Tegan Hansen said.

‘‘There were some crucial misses on goal and just some poor choices. But defensively the girls worked really hard.’’

Standouts included Demi Cox, Paige Hockley, Emily Martin and Isabella Morgan. Despite the defeat the side is just one win outside the top six, and had been working hard at training.UNDER-17

The youngest Lions side will face its stiffest test this season when it comes up against fellow undefeated side Shepparton United on Saturday, but it warmed up well with a 41-27 win to make it seven-from-seven.

Five of those wins have been against the bottom five sides, including the Bears, but the team has pleased coach Abby Misiti with its progress.

Seymour started slowly, which Misiti put down to the weather (torrential rain at times) and led by four at half-time.

‘‘They settled a little bit in the second half and they were able to push the lead out, which was quite good given the circumstances. Our girls use a lot of change of direction and speed so the weather didn’t really suit.’’

Chene Clydesdale and Rosie O’Sullivan continued their excellent seasons with standout games, and Bonnie Dawson also shone.

Both Clydesdale and O’Sullivan have already seen time in the A-grade side, but Misiti is equally pleased with how the first-year players have performed.

‘‘I think we’ll be competitive,’’ she said.