It was legendary US college football coach Al Davis who put it best and most simply: “Just win, baby.”
For five of the top six sides in the Kyabram District League A-grade netball competition, the message has rung through clear as day.
Top three sides Lancaster, Girgarre and Shepparton East, as well as fifth-placed Dookie United and sixth-ranked Avenel, are all on winning streaks of three or more after Saturday’s round eight action.
Not to say everybody got the job done with comfort and ease — far from it — but strings of results like these quickly separate the contenders from the rest.
Lancaster continues to set the standard in 2024 despite personnel issues that have persisted through the season, though, taking the chocolates from Violet Town in a 10-goal win.
The entire Lancaster club seems to be riding the high this year, with neither the senior footballers nor the A-graders on the courts tasting defeat in a dominant campaign.
The Towners, though, are skidding after suffering their first two defeats of the year on either side of the King’s Birthday bye.
Things could be so different at the top were it not for Girgarre’s single-goal defeat to Shepparton East in round three, with the Kangaroos otherwise remaining perfect for the season after picking up a fifth straight win at the expense of Longwood, 63-18.
That Shepparton East outfit, which left no doubt of its supremacy in a grand final rematch belting of Tallygaroopna before the bye, picked up right where it left off in handily knocking over Stanhope 44-25 at Central Park.
Meanwhile, Dookie United continued to heap the pressure on Violet Town by joining it at 6-2 following a big 61-36 win on the road at Merrigum.
Murchison-Toolamba is a side that could perhaps be considered the victim of some hard luck in the close ones this season.
Now sitting at 2-6 with a goal difference of merely -3 — yes, that’s more losses than net goals against, technically — the Hoppers’ latest heartbreak came in the form of a tough 43-41 defeat at home to Avenel, which ran its own win streak to three and hung on to sixth in doing so.
Nagambie was at last able to steady the ship after a 3-0 start to the year was rapidly scuttled by four consecutive defeats, with the Lakers squaring the ledger once again courtesy of a whopping 76-28 result over Undera.
Sunday’s fixture pitted winless Rushworth against a faltering Tallygaroopna side which would have aspired to more than a 2-5 record coming into the weekend.
The Redlegs picked up the vital, albeit expected, victory to close out round eight, moving to 3-5 with a 50-23 rout of the Tigers.