The honest discussions began immediately post-match for Sunshine Coast Lightning, after an upsetting loss to Melbourne Vixens in the dying moments on Saturday.
Head Coach Kylee Byrne was pleased with the constructive response from the athletes in the change rooms and the strong desire to be better.
“We just had a really big chat about accountability,” Byrne said.
“We’re a team in the past – or particularly this year – who have worked really hard in those close finishes and gotten away with the win.
“This weekend was one that didn’t come our way.
“My main point was that we can’t put ourselves in those situations constantly.
“When you have a lead of 8 to 10 goals, we have to be better than that to push out the lead – at the moment we’re not doing that and we’re letting teams stay too close to us.”
Lightning led at each of the breaks but a 7 goal to 16 final quarter allowed Vixens to overtake the home side and secure the win by 3.
While collectively disappointed by the result, Byrne believes the learnings from the weekend, are a timely reminder as the team heads into the final rounds of the home and away season.
“It’s a cliché but it’s a loss we had to have – particularly in the dying moments, we were up by 5 with 5 minutes to go and every other game we’ve managed to pull that win out of the bag,” she said.
“They were in the change room talking about how they don’t want to feel like this again – but how do you obviously avoid that.
“I think this is a turning point and without getting too far ahead, we’re already saying we’re have West Coast Fever next week and there’s no better challenge at the moment.
“I hope something happened today that will give us extra motivation in the coming weeks.“
