West Coast Fever were defeated by the Queensland Firebirds 57-68 in Round 6 of the Suncorp Super Netball League at Nissan Arena today.
Despite the loss, as has been the case with West Coast Fever’s brand of netball, they came out of the blocks fast, scoring five unanswered goals, all coming from world-leading goal scorer Jhaniele Fowler. The only thing to halt the Fever’s run was a timeout called by Firebirds, then soon after Fever called their own, which kicked the Perth side into gear.
Captain Courtney Bruce was superb in defence with her high pressure on Thunderbirds goal shooter Romelda Aiken resulting in a couple of missed shots. A gritty effort by Bruce to gain contested ball at a crucial time spurred her team on and resulted in Fowler scoring and Fever winning the first quarter 16-14.
Bruce continued to lead by example, as defenders Shannon Eagland and training partner Sunday Aryang followed suit, gaining plenty of the ball with seven deflections between them for the second quarter. Fever were unlucky to not convert at the other end as they went into half time with an eight-goal deficit, 25-33.
Fever turned their woes around in the third quarter, winning the term for the first time this season. Fowler scored her first super shot with 16 seconds left to claw back the margin as they headed into the last quarter 43-50.
Goal attack Kaylia Stanton produced three super shots from four attempts in the last quarter to push the Firebirds. Fowler finished the game with 50 goals, including two super shots. Verity Charles started at wing attack and led the way with goal assists (12) and feeds (25).
Bruce finished the game with 11 deflections and four intercepts and Aryang with 5 deflections and 1 intercept.
West Coast Fever Head Coach Stacey Marinkovich said: “Full credit to Firebirds they came out really aggressive, they put on a really good defensive brand against us and we didn’t stick to what we needed to do to get through it and we became a bit hesitant and we needed to make sure we kept our run and our vision for the circle, it wasn’t the way we like to play.”
“We needed to be more responsible for our own across the court and it’s something we are going to have to, in some part, take some really quick learnings and in some ways dump that game and move on really quickly. Every game is tough and it’s relentless and it’s punishing if you don’t do what works for your team.” Marinkovich said.
