Kooringal secures minor premiership

KOORINGAL took out the Wagga A grade netball minor premiership by beating Shootin' Stars 39-32 in Saturday's feature game at Equex Netball Centre.Both teams were without regular defenders, with Kooringal missing Molly McGregor and the Stars minus Mandy Inglis, Georgia Cornell and Sidonie Hocking. From that viewpoint, Stars did well to cover the entire defensive trio with regular shooter Bailey Casley moving into the important goal keeper position and Laura Kirkpatrick playing at goal defence. Nadine Crowley was promoted to fill McGregor's role for Kooringal. After a closely contested first quarter, Shootin' Stars went to the first break with a two-goal advantage.The second term was dominated by the defence, but Kooringal managed to reduce the margin to just one goal by the long interval. The Maroons lifted in the third quarter, again outscoring Stars and went into the last term with a two-goal lead. Goal keeper Tracy Logan was outstanding for the Maroons, while Stars goal attack Megan Mattingly was keeping her team in touch with a fine performance. Kooringal opened the game up in the final term as mid-court Corbetts, Michelle and Miranda presented numerous opportunities for shooters Melissa Sykes and Lauren Cooper.In a fabulous display, Sykes and Cooper netted another 15 goals as Kooringal surged to victory.Continued good defence from Kooringal limited Shootin' Stars to 10 goals in the final period, giving Kooringal a seven goal edge at the end ? and the minor premiership. New Kids, meantime, continued on their winning way and tuned up for the finals series by downing Turvey Park 48-41. Turvey Park was slow to start and New Kids scored freely to take an early five-goal advantage.New Kids' shooters Maddie Brown and Simone Jorgensen were in grand form, converting 14 of their 16 attempts at goal. New Kids centre Rachael Addison continued to give great drive in a match-winning second quarter. A new shooting combination of Paige Colenso and Jorgensen netted 13 goals, but it was the Kids defence, led by Gaby Colvin and Jemma Buchanan, that made a huge impact.Colvin and Buchanan restricted Turvey Park shooters Kelly Goodyer and Danielle Murphy to only six goals to give New Kids a 12-goal lead at the long break.A reorganised Turvey Park took advantage of Addison having the third quarter off, outscoring New Kids by six goals. New Kids built on the lead in the last quarter before Turvey Park steadied, matching the Kids' last term yield to leave the deficit at seven by the end.