The South Coast Blaze's under 23s have enjoyed the perfect launching pad for their inaugural campaign.
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The Blaze secured a 52-46 win over ERNA Hawks in the NSW Premier League's first round on Wednesday night.
Coach Regan Tweddle said it was great to "get the monkey off the back" in the new franchise's opening game.
"It was so exciting. It was our first ever time as a new franchise in a Sydney competition and it's been a crazy season with COVID hitting us right in the middle of everything. It was just a sense of relief that we're finally playing, we're on the court and we won," she said.
"The Hawks are a very good team. I'm glad that we're only playing them once because they're in the other conference. I feel like we've beat them and can start to move onto other teams."
However, Tweddle said the region's newest under 23s netball team wasn't trying to think too far ahead.
"I like to keep our girls really humble and grounded. It just gets the monkey off the back and we can just build," the coach said.
"We've got video footage of ours and all of the other games last night. We'll use it to make our play better and our game stronger. We made mistakes too. We were up by maybe 15 at one stage and my whole idea of that is all you need to do is contain and build, keep the momentum and build. And we didn't do that as a team.
"But there were lots of changes in our first hit out, everybody on the bench had a go. So that's a good win."
However, it was a difficult initiation for South Coast's opens team who fell 80-52 to the 2019 premiers, ERNA Hawks on Wednesday night.
The Blaze started strongly with Kristina Brice shooting well, but the team lost their structure when goal keeper Te-Arn Bradley went down with an ankle injury.
The Hawks led by nine at half time before pulling away after the break to record a comfortable victory.
The Blaze will look to bounce back against the Panthers on July 29.