Riverina exceeds expectations at Regional State Cup to finish runners up

The side, which didn't manage a full squad training session ahead of the tournament, lost just one game to the eventual winners.

Head coach Sally Hunter said for a team that hadn't been able to pull together ahead of the competition, they played spectacularly.

"We didn't really know what to expect going in, so it was pretty good to get through day one undefeated and get a few more winds on the board today," Hunter said.

"We had a really tight one against Hunter Central Coast who ended up winning, it was great.

"They had a very strong performance, I think we put a few goals on today and Hunter Central Coast probably put a few more on yesterday so pipped us in the percentage but it was an excellent performance by the whole team."

Hunter said the way the group maintained intensity into the second day of games was outstanding.

The team played 12 games in two days, with Hunter saying they went into every game with grit.

"We looked like a team all weekend, right from the start" she said.

"Shooters started to combine really well, defence were talking and midcourt was pretty seamless all weekend, which was great, they were very impressive for a team that had trained three times with no training with everyone there."

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Coming against premier league players in some squads, Hunter was impressed with how well the players who had aged out of representative or Academy programs held up.

"Some of them being older than the Academy, they're playing footy netball and they're not getting the really high intensity, physical, sort of constant netball that we were playing this weekend so I was very impressed at the way they handled the physicality of stronger players and they way they really matched the intensity of other people who have a bit more experience in that," she said.

Happy with the whole team's efforts, Hunter said the consistency between games from Ava Moller, Phoebe Wallace, and Jenna Richards was exceptional.

Assistant coach Rachel King said to have six Wagga Netball Association players in the side was an exciting look at the future of Wagga netball.

Pleased to see them exceeding, she said them making the team provides pathway visions for other players too.

"It creates that pathway for those girls that are coming through the representative program and it shows that they can go to that next level and there is a pathway for them to go above and play at a high level," King said.

The connection the Wagga players already had on court benefited the team too, King said.

"I think across the whole board they stepped up and really matched the intensity of the other girls," she said.

"Ava and Emily [McPherson] combined beautifully in the circle and it obviously showed that they had some previous combination history there playing State Titles together.

"Phoebe and Elysia [Smith] played exceptionally together in the midcourt and then Ash [Reynoldson] and Rudy [Gillard] combined really well in that defensive end."

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