THERE were plenty of positive signs to come out of Saturday's opening round of Ovens and King netball, despite the Bright sides only managing one victory on the Pioneer Park courts.
In front of a jam-packed crowd for the Easter long weekend, Bright's A grade side came up against Whorouly - the reigning premier - and went down by 10 goals.
Kelli Jacobsen, who has taken on the duties as coach of the A and B grade sides with Andrea Jordan, said the girls were a lot closer to victory in the main contest than the final margin suggested.
"They won (the premiership) last year, and I don't know how many girls they retained, but it wasn't too bad," she said.
"We probably should've won on Saturday, we were very consistent in the quarters, but there is still a lot we need to work on."
With a lot of the girls in the squad under 18, Bright has filled the A grade line up with plenty of experience.
Lacking height, Jacobsen said players were required to play different roles on the court this season.
"We've got people playing out of position," she said.
"Our goal, which we just talked about on Saturday, is to score 10 goals a quarter against all opponents, we're not going to get flogged every week.
"We don't have a tall defender, so we're quite short, but we will be competitive and that's all we can ask."
Bec Crawley was best on court in the loss and was well supported by Gemma O'Donnell in defence.
Jacobsen and Jordan took on the role just before the season commenced, which saw some senior players return to the club to assist the junior contingent, which is strong this year.
"We got some of the senior girls to commit, which has helped," Jacobsen said.
"Hopefully we will get a few of the younger girls up in A grade to give them that experience."
On Saturday the four games started off on a high for Bright, when the C grade side thrashed the Lions 54-25.
Gill Deed was named best on court after shooting 30 goals, while Bec Lebisch was also dominant.
Unfortunately the Mountain Girls couldn't replicate the effort of the young squad and lost the next three matches.
B reserve went down by 23 goals, but were boosted by the return of Leah Alexander who was named best on court and young gun Bella Losch-Hickey was also a solid contributor.
The B grade side suffered a heavy defeat to Whorouly, going down by 28 goals, but Raelene Hewitt and Natalie Kelly stood tall for the Bright side.
By - ALEX BAIRD.
Last Modified on 15/04/2012 19:15