West Coast Fever were defeated by last year’s premiers, NSW Swifts in a thriller 72-73.
Fever dominated the first half of the game with stand-in captain Jhaniele Fowler and Alice Teague-Neeld working seamlessly together. Fowler scored 13 goals in the first quarter with 100 per cent accuracy as Teague-Neeld scored a perfect three super shots to put Fever ahead 20-18 at the first break.
In similar fashion to the first quarter, Fowler scored the first three goals for the quarter, but as Swifts kept chasing, Fever coach Stacey Marinkovich opted to move Verity Charles to wing attack and Jess Anstiss to centre. Fever picked up the pace and the goals kept flowing.
Fowler making the long high lob passes look easy to handle, scoring her first two-goal for Fever and extending their lead to 11 goals. Swifts goal attack Helen Housby took advantage of the Rebel Power 5 scoring three two-goals for her side to close the margin to 8 goals and trail 41-33.
But Swifts coach Briony Akle had a secret weapon for the third quarter in goal shooter Sophie Garbin who scored 21 goals from 23 attempts. Her on-court performance put Swifts in the lead 52-60 and was the only quarter the Sydney side won.
Fever kept their pressure in the last quarter and clawed their way back. A superb effort from Sunday Aryang late in the quarter resulted in Fever gaining possession and Fowler evening the score in the dying minutes of the game.
Fever coach Stacey Marinkovich said her team have plenty to learn from this game.
“What a great display of netball, when you challenge a great team like Swifts you know they’re always going to come back firing and they did some really good change-ups and it really challenged us.”
“It was great by us to really fight back as well, when challenged. The first half was probably the fastest I’ve seen our game for some time, when you’ve got that sort of pace it’s hard to hold that for 60 minutes.”
However, time got the better of the Perth side, a Housby goal with 20 seconds left sealed the win for the Swifts. Garbin finished the game with 28 goals and Housby with 19, including six super-shots
Fowler finished the game with 53 goals. Olivia Lewis did well to replace Fever captain and goal-keeper, Courtney Bruce, finishing the game with four rebounds.
