RELATED: KYNETON anticipates its exodus from the BFNL A-grade netball competition will be limited to this season. Speaking after the Tigers’ one goal upset A-reserve win over Kangaroo Flat on Saturday, coach Dianee Guest-Oakley said the club was striving to be back in A-grade next season. They already have their coach, with Guest-Oakley contracted for another season. She intends for the Tigers to be back to bolster the A-grade competition, which was reduced to just eight teams this season, with Castlemaine also not fielding a top-grade team. “Hopefully we will … we’ll be striving for the full number of teams,” she said. “We only had one and a half teams last year (in 2017) and three teams this year. Having that one more would be really good.” Judging by the strength of its premiership line-up, which included experienced goal shooter Michelle Fletcher, Hayley Page, Brooke and Jess Mangan and defender Stephanie Penning, the Tigers would have been more than competitive against most teams this season. The Tigers premiership win followed the pattern of their previous two finals wins, with the team prevailing in a thriller. Kyneton reached the grand final with a tense three goal preliminary final win over Sandhurst last weekend, and negotiated a tight one goal game against Gisborne in the semi-finals. On Saturday, Kyneton trailed by one goal at half time and by three goals at three quarter time, but had led 14-10 at quarter time. Guest-Oakley said she always knew the Roos would fight back hard after finding themselves down at the first change of end. “As I said to the girls, just be patient with the ball and we’ll get there in the end,” she said. “We’ve all worked hard – the committee and the girls – coming back to build the club up again and get the camaraderie back into the club. “They’ve really deserved this win.” Oakley-Guest nominated Jess Mangan and Fletcher as arguably her side’s best. Neither was adjudged best on court, with that honour going to Kangaroo Flat vice-captain Julia Clarke (23 goals) for an excellent game at goal attack. The Roos, who were chasing back-to-back A-reserve flags, were well led by joint captain Bridget Chambers at goal keeper, while Megg Ginnivan was a constant threat at wing attack. Kyneton’s premiership was its first in any grade since their B-grade win in 2014.
