Timboon Demons face Panmure in WDFNL round eight

Panmure's Stacy Dunkley as well as Port Fairy's Ally Feely and Hamilton's Amanda Douglas have been struck down.

Timboon Demons midcourter Mellissa McKenzie, who was on The Main Break podcast this week, said she wasn't sure why such injuries were happening.

"For me, as an older player, it's on the forefront of your mind," she said.

"For some reason I always think it's the one thing that would be absolutely terrible.

"But you're right, it is happening and not just within netball, I know of a couple of other people who have actually snapped achilles in the last eight weeks that aren't involved in our netball system.

"So I don't know if it is a break from competitive sport and just getting back into things or it's a crazy coincidence - I'm not sure.

"But it is something that's always in the back of my mind so I'm always making sure I'm warming up, cooling down and doing all the things you can.

"But ultimately every time you get on the court, there is that risk of injury."

READ MORE:

McKenzie said doing your achilles was an extreme injury.

"It impacts your whole life, netball is the thing you do but your whole life is impacted if you snap your achilles," she said.

Listen to Mellissa McKenzie on The Main Break here:

Meanwhile, the second-ranked Demons play Panmure at home this week.

"It'll be great to see what we come up against, unfortunately poor Stace (Dunkley) had an injury so they'll be without one of their key players," she said.

"But I'm sure they're going to put up a good fight regardless, they're a good team.

"A lot of the girls that are there now are very competitive players no matter where they are.

"So we're up for the challenge but I don't think it will be an easy one by any means."

Timboon Demons beat reigning premier Merrivale in round three by six goals.

They went down to ladder-leader Nirranda by six goals in round five.

McKenzie felt the Dees battled hard and learnt lessons from the loss to the Blues.

"It was a great game, we put up a pretty good fight, we didn't really give it the full four quarters in the end," she said.

"You don't ever want to come away with a loss but we're definitely not disappointed by any means in how we performed."

Have you signed up to The Standard's daily newsletter and breaking news emails? You can register below and make sure you are up to date with everything that's happening in the south-west.