The Scottsdale and Hillwood clash at Bracknell on Saturday presents as important for both NTFAW premier sides.
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The fifth-placed Magpies would love to get their second win and stay in finals contention while the bottom-ranked Sharks are keen for their first victory of the season.
Scottsdale playing-coach Mikayla Binns said her team had a breakthrough in their three-point loss to Old Scotch last weekend.
She said the group had been starting slowly and not finding their groove until the second half of games.
But they "looked like a chance and played four quarters" against the Thistles.
Binns is hoping it will be like that for the rest of the season.
They have extra incentive to play well this weekend with gun midfielder Alex Hall playing her 50th game for the club. She's among the first to reach the milestone.
"She's loves to go in hard and win the inside ball and she's grown from when I first saw her play in 2016," Binns said.
The Magpies have a full list available with only Sarah Radford (general soreness) in doubt.
While Scottsdale have been competitive in all their games, they have struggled to hit the scoreboard.
Binns said the Pies lacked a strong-marking forward and were playing around with combinations to see what worked.
She noted the midfielders were providing great support to the forward line.
The Magpies have plenty of new faces to footy this season which has made for great enthusiasm at training and on game day.
"It's really exciting to see and I love it," Binns said.
"Even though we're not winning, it's just a really good environment to be around.
"All the girls are fun and there's a good culture."
Binns, who led Launceston to the 2021 premiership, said she was relishing the challenge of teaching the game to newcomers.
Her approach is to keep it simple and there's plenty of time put into learning to kick and handball.
"We smash out 45 minutes of skills and then work our way up from there to some game-like experience as well," the coach said.
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Brian Allen
Passionate about covering all sports from Ultimate Frisbee through to the latest footy and netball updates. Started at The Examiner in January 2022. Was part of the Warrnambool Standard's sports team which won the 2019 AFL Victoria Best Print/Online coverage for a daily newspaper. Got a story? Email: brian.allen@austcommunitymedia.com.au
Passionate about covering all sports from Ultimate Frisbee through to the latest footy and netball updates. Started at The Examiner in January 2022. Was part of the Warrnambool Standard's sports team which won the 2019 AFL Victoria Best Print/Online coverage for a daily newspaper. Got a story? Email: brian.allen@austcommunitymedia.com.au
