NETBALL
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By JENNIFER HOAR
THINGS are heating up in the Dubbo Netball Association (DNA) 2016 A-grade season as some competition stalwarts face an onslaught from the new teams on the block.
Narromine Bombers, Deadly Dragonflies and Apollo Cruisers have all made the step up from B-grade, while Macquarie Hornets have also entered the competition with former St Collegians' Michelle Williams and Jess Willmott at the helm.
They're up against four teams from the Fusions club which, in the absence of last year's Rawson Homes A-Grade premiers St Collegians, is now the relative old hat of the competition.
But so far the competition is very close, with four teams - Macquarie Hornets, Fusions Thunder, Deadly Dragonflies and Fusions Lightning all tied up on four points after enjoying a win and a loss each in the opening two rounds.
"Narromine had shaky start in the first round but had a good game against Deadly Dragonflies, only going down by two," Weekes said.
"The only other team currently without a win are Apollo Cruisers. [They] have had a tough start of the draw but again they've been competitive, they've been able to score plenty of goals."
In fact, the Cruisers have managed to put more points on the board than any of the other bottom six teams. But they have also conceded 121 points - 42 more than the second worst record held by Fusions Thunder.
Next week the Cruisers face Macquarie Hornets - who are so far the best defensive side in the competition, having conceded only 49 points - in what should be a closely contested match.
But if things are tight at the bottom, they're even tighter at the top.
Fusions All-Blacks - last year's runners up - and Fusions Pink sit at first and second on the table respectively, but Weekes said there was little separating the sides.
It should make for a highly competitive contest when they face one another this weekend.
"That will be effectively a top-of-the-table clash and there's only half a percentage point difference between their for and against," Weekes said.
"So two very close, evenly matched teams. Both of those teams contain State league players and both teams contain players from the 21s so it will be a very interesting match.
"[All-Blacks] are the team to beat, they're last years runners up and there's no defending champions so they should be setting the benchmark and I expect they will."
Weekes said it was terrific to see the quality of play being maintained, despite there being so many new faces in the A-grade competition this year.
"The standard of netball being played is great and it is the first time we've had an eight team A-grade competition in a number of years," she said.
"The elevation of those B-grade teams hasn't weakened B-grade but it has strengthened A-grade.
"We feel like netball is in a very, very healthy position at the moment. We've got strong participation and strong growth in the sport and the skill level is continuing to improve."