It's been a tough season of Netball for the Nyngan Cougars who have crawled one spot up from the bottom of the leaderboard after last weekend's 38 - 32 loss against the St Groovers.
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"We're really pleased with how we played, we were short on numbers because we've had a horrific season with injuries and have a number that are totally out," said coach Jodi Douglas.
"It's been not a great season for poor old Nyngan this year. But we have the resilience, we turn up every week - we get in the car and come over, it's a commitment for any team from Nyngan."
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The Cougars' face off against the Groovers in Round 11 of the Dubbo Netball Association's Women's A Grade was the team's 7th loss of the gruelling season. The Groovers are currently ranked third on the leaderboard.
"If we didn't have our injuries we would've been a very competitive team on the table - outside the top two obviously, they're stand outs. We've had some pretty big score lines against us, just due to sometimes only having five of our original players on," said Douglas.
Short on players this season, players from lower division Nyngan Cougars teams have had a chance to show off their skills at the A Grade level.
"We had one young player, Shania Dutschky, who came up from Div 2 and played with us - she played a full game the game prior with her team and then came over and played a full game with us. She did really well, it's a hell of a jump from Div 2 to A Grade," said Douglas.
"She started on as Wing Defence but then she played the second half in Centre and she did really well."
In June, the team managed a narrow 37 - 36 victory against Macquarie Anglican Grammar School team, the Hornets. For Douglas, the focus for the rest for the final few rounds of the season will be making sure the team can field the numbers needed to avoid a third forfeit - which would see them kicked out of the A Grade.
"At the end of the day the girls just love the game and they want to be there. We've already had two forfeits that we just couldn't avoid and we're hanging in by our fingernails to try and finish the season, that's our big goal," she said.
After this weekend's match up the Narromine Hawks and rivals Fusion Heat - who have only lost one game each this season - remain at the top of the leaderboard with 31 points followed by the St Groovers who are 5 points behind on 23 points.
Fusion Heat beat the Hornets 50 - 23, Fusion Mixtures beat St Thunder 30 - 25 and the Narromine Hawks beat Fusion Fierce by forfeit.
