West Coast Fever have fallen short of a quality Melbourne Vixens outfit in Melbourne this afternoon by 12 goals.
The loss means Fever will need to win their final three games of the season and have results go their way to play finals in 2019.
After a back and forth opening stanza, the Vixens took control to take a four goal lead into the first break.
Jhaniele Fowler and Alice Teague-Neeld combined well, with just one miss between them in the opening quarter.
The Vixens started the second quarter strongly, and scored 19 goals to 11, to take the second bonus point and extend their lead to 12 goals at the major break.
West Coast Fever Head Coach Stacey Marinkovich turned to her bench in the third quarter, injecting temporary replacement player, Beryl Friday, into Goal Attack and young gun defender Olivia Lewis into Goal Keeper.
The moves paid dividends as Fever outscored the Vixens 15-12 to claim their first bonus point and cut the margin to nine at the final change, breathing life into Fever’s campaign.
However, a dominant final term by the home side saw them claim their third bonus point, winning the quarter 14 to 11.
Courtney Bruce was again impressive with four interceptions and a rebound, while Jhaniele Fowler led the way in the goal circle with 44/47.
Marinkovich said it was a disappointing loss.
“We’re striving for wins, and we’re delivering in the training environment, but that needs to translate to the game,” Marinkovich said.
“We need to find that consistency both in attack and defence. There were times today where our defence was very good and we turned ball over, but didn’t convert it at the other end, and there were times where our attack was seamless in getting the ball to post.”
Fever now return home to RAC Arena for a Monday night blockbuster against the Collingwood Magpies on Monday, August 12.
