If recent history is anything to go by, the Hume City Lady Broncos are on track for another successful season in the Big V state championship.
The Broncos have started the past two seasons 6-0 and 5-0 and have gone on to win the championship.
After six rounds this season, they were 6-0.
Despite a strong start to the season, Broncos assistant coach Warren Taylor said the players were not getting ahead of themselves.
“There’s a lot of improvement and a lot to learn about ourselves still to come,” said Taylor.
“It does, though, give us a buffer for later in the season. We still have three to four teams we haven’t even played yet.”
The Broncos faced two of those teams at the weekend.
They lost the first match, against Waverley, by one point then followed up with a 20-point win over Bulleen on Sunday.
Taylor says the key for the Broncos this season is not being too predictable.
He said the team had the advantage of maintaining eight members of last year’s premiership team so players already knew each other’s strengths.
“We are finding … other teams seem to have recruited to try and counteract Colleen [Planeta]. They have recruited bigs who can match up with her. She is the benchmark.
“We do not want to have a team which just has plan A.”
Planeta, last season’s MVP, is again leading the competition and averaging more than 23 points per game.
But this season, the Broncos are looking to spread their scoring.
“Nicole Zammit had 15 points a couple of weeks ago, as did Samara Gallaher,” Taylor said. “Sammy [Samara] had 20 on the weekend as well.
“That’s the sort of thing we are starting to improve on. They are talented players who have been in Colleen’s shadow.”
One player who has taken the next step this season is Vivien Saad.
Saad, is leading the competition in rebounds and her scoring average is up six points a game on the past season.
“She has been here [at Broadmeadows] since under-12s and it’s fantastic to have a home-grown product playing so well,” Taylor said.
“She is a star and people are starting to think about the way she plays.”
