Temora the first to topple Jets; CSU get their first win on the board

Northern Jets have been a force in the opening six rounds of the Farrer League season and despite an up and down start for the Kangaroos, they secured themselves a comfortable win.

It was the first time the clubs have played since league midcourt stalwart Meg Reinhold moved to the Jets.

Younger sister, and 2023 rising star winner, Abbey Reinhold said it was a funny feeling playing against her sister for the first time.

"It was weird, her being down the other end warming up," Reinhold said.

"But oh well, that's what it is, it was nice to get the win over her."

With plenty of new faces stepping into Temora's A grade side this year, she said the side finally feels like they've found some rhythm.

Playing around with combinations and game styles, this win was an important one.

Not only was the 58-42 win a confidence booster, but it proved to the reigning premiers they can't just keep up with top competitors, but dominate them.

"It felt good, our team has started to gel now, it's been a lot cleaner and it went really smoothly yesterday," Reinhold said.

"We've started to figure out ourselves on the court, we had a bit of a mixed packet of positions.

"We had Ahlia (Derrick) in centre and she really slotted in well, and that made the game run more smoothly.

"Figuring out where our positions are and being able to work around that was nice."

Mixing and matching combinations will be particularly useful as they head deeper into the season.

Though with two players sustaining rolled ankles on Saturday, she said the flexibility is already helping them out of pickles.

With consecutive wins now, Reinhold is hopeful they'll find some positive forward momentum from the game.

"We've had some tough games, we lost three in a row, so it was good to get another win and gain a bit more confidence," she said.

"We maintained intensity throughout the whole game, so we need to keep doing that, not lowering and keep playing how we did yesterday."

Focus now shifts to next weekend's game against Charles Sturt University where they hope for another good win.

It'd been a long time coming but Charles Sturt University had their first win of the year over Coleambally.

In what is a common story for the university-based club, the Bushsows have had a slow start to the season, though playing coach Holly Judd said this year in particular has been a rebuild.

Struggling to find momentum early in games has been an issue for the side, and Judd was pleased to see how hard they played in the first quarter.

"We came up pretty firing at the start which was really good, I think we've struggled with that the last couple of weeks," Judd said.

"We're a bit slow to start and then the other team gets a bit of a jump but this week it was nice because it was us that got the jump on.

"So I was really happy with how we started and even our second quarter, normally we start losing momentum from that break and have a funny second quarter, but we got over that this week and it was really nice."

Not only was the win a reflection of improvement within the team but a great morale booster, with Judd admitting it starts to get hard losing each week.

Despite scorelines though, she feels, and hopes their opponents feel too, that they've been competitive.

"I think we're competitive, we make the other teams fight for the ball, and I feel like our score doesn't really reflect how we play," she said.

"We make them work a bit harder than what they think they might have to, we come off the court and have been like, 'yeah, that was a really competitive game' and I'm hoping that the other side's come off thinking that as well, even score line is big score line, they still come off and feel like we've actually be quite competitive."

As the mid-way point of the season rapidly approaches, Judd said she isn't expecting miracles from her team but would like to see scorelines reduce through the next 10 games.

Working to narrow margins, more wins would be appreciated, but she is keeping her goals for the team reachable.

Returning A grader Felicity Bonny was particularly important to this first win and was named best on court.

Players like Bonny, who have been around the club for several years, Judd said, are especially important.

"It's really hard to build combinations and gelling, trusting the play, in a couple of weeks so having a couple of girls like Flick, and Liesel (Park) and myself that have been in A grade a couple of years does help a little bit," she said.

"We know what they can do, we know they can get there, and Liesel and Flick are really strong leaders.

"They help bring the ball down and they talk all around, having some experienced players on the court really does help those new girls that have come into the side."

Barellan 58 d Marrar 51

North Wagga 49 d East Wagga-Kooringal 35

Charles Sturt University 43 d Coleambally 31

Temora 58 d Northern Jets 42