Our first ever Scottish Cup finalists put up an almighty effort against Monifieth in what was an exciting final match. The first quarter started a bit slow with both teams playing some good netball but nerves were really on show with lots of turnovers and the shooters on both teams not seeing much of the ball. The quarter score was only 3-3. Both teams then settled into some good netball, Monifieth had four very strong, physical and skilful players which made it difficult for our team to play however SGG rose to the occasion and started to find kinks in their armour as the game progressed. At half time SGG were up by 1 goal and by third quarter Monifieth were up by 1, this shows you how close the game was throughout. The game could have gone either way but in the end it was Monifieth who pulled ahead by 4 goals with no reply in the last two minutes of play which meant SGG had no time to get back in the game, well done to Monifieth who had a great team and deserved the victory 23-19. Our S1 team should be very proud of how they have played not only in the final but in all the knouckout games too. There is so much stacked against the school: smallest school in competition (190 girls in the school S1-6), no home court just an assembly hall to play on, most of the team had no prior experience of playing netball until secondary so the fact the girls have been able to quickly get up to this standard of play is absolutely amazing. I really don’t think the team and all our netball teams we have/had understand how impressive it is to be able to compete at local and national league level considering everything above. The S1 Monifieth team had district level players in their team going by a tweet made by Angus Netball. That’s incredible, that’s the same district level age group as our S3s are in. Only two of our players go to clubs and one of those only recently, this shows you hoe good the work all our Netballers our in at training week in week out. You could tell their girls had more experience with the game but our S1 girls pushed them all the way.
Maisie and Layla both played well at GK and have shown on the court that they have learnt a lot this year. Isla was outstanding both at GD and C, she won the ball back for us numerous times resulting in more opportunities for our shooters. Emilly played another consistent game for us at WD, she very, very rarely loses the ball for us which is important in the mid court. Seona but in an almighty shift, she coped very well moving from C to GD after half time despite having never played GD before, ever. Isobel made some excellent passes to our shooters in the circle, her movement has improved dramatically this year and although she probably prefers to play GS we appreciate the excellent effort she puts in for us at WA. Orla our GA was up against the tallest player on the court but nothing is knew there, it always seems to be the GD as the apposition’s tallest player. Orla has been very impressive this year and in the final again worked very well with both Seona, Isobel and Rhuna. She’s played so well at GA that she has made that her own position in the last 4 games when others could possibly play there. Rhuna at GS played her best game ever for SGG she really was fantastic. Her timing and movement was the best it’s ever been, she should be proud at her performance as the opposition found it very challenging to find a way of stopping her playing. Well done girls, what a performance and what a cup run! It really was amazing, thank you all so much for your effort this year in the Scottish Cup. The whole school is proud of you for your Silver team National medals!
