West Coast Fever will travel to the Gold Coast in February for the Team Girls Cup as part of its preparation for the 2023 Suncorp Super Netball season.
The Fever will play three pool matches against the NSW Swifts, Sunshine Coast Lightning and Collingwood Magpies before a play-off match on the final day of the tournament.
Coach Dan Ryan said Team Girls Cup would be a great opportunity to see how the team was progressing from the training track to the competition floor against their peers.
“Team Girls Cup is about getting the players out there competing again, testing combinations and being able to demonstrate the learnings from game-to-game,” he said.
“Ultimately, it is about gathering as much information as possible about our game and our team and using that to really sharpen our focus in the training environment heading into round one.”
Prior to the Team Girls Cup, Fever will also play two matches in Perth against the Victorian Men’s Team at the Gold Netball Centre, as part of a weekend of matches which will also see the WA Men’s and Victorian Men’s teams battle it out.
“We have some great pre-season matches coming up and they will all pose different challenges for us which is what we want,” Ryan said.
“Most importantly, they’ll allow us to get a good feel for how we are tracking, identify what’s been consolidated and what still needs some more attention at this point in our preparation.
“Our matches against the Victorian Men will give us a good insight into our physical preparedness but also our ability to lock into some of our key themes and trademarks that are always pressure tested against men’s teams. The men’s teams are the ultimate pre-season challenge for us. We always learn so much every time we come up against them.”
The Gold Netball Centre will also play host to two pre-season matches against Adelaide Thunderbirds to round out Fever’s pre-season campaign.
Ryan believed Adelaide Thunderbirds will be one of the teams to beat and was excited to play them just prior to round one.
“The Thunderbirds have recruited really well in the off-season and have some huge firepower at either end of the court now,” he said.
“I expect them to be right up there in season 2023 and it will be great to face off against them prior to our first home game at RAC Arena on 18 March.”
West Coast Fever Pre-Season Fixtures
Saturday 11 February - West Coast Fever v Victoria Men’s Teams, Gold Netball Centre, Perth
Sunday 12 February - West Coast Fever v Victoria Men’s Teams, Gold Netball Centre, Perth
Tickets for the Fever v Victorian Men’s matches are on sale now via EventBrite
Team Girls Cup - Gold Coast Sports & Leisure Centre
Friday 24 February, 2pm WST - West Coast Fever v NSW Swifts
Saturday 25 February 10am WST - West Coast Fever v Sunshine Coast Lightning
Saturday 25 February 3pm WST - West Coast Fever v Collingwood Magpies
Sunday 26 February - Playoffs begin at 9am WST
Ticket sales for the Suncorp Team Girls Cup commence Tuesday 24 January, with pre-sale for Suncorp Super Netball club members, registered participants nationwide and Netball Nation subscribers available from 12pm to 7pm.
Early Bird general public tickets will go on sale Wednesday 25 January at 12pm and close at 11:59pm on Friday 27 January. Standard general public tickets are available from 12am on Saturday 28 January onwards. Tickets will be available for purchase via Ticketek.
* Please note all on sale ticket times are in Australian Eastern Standard Time (AEST)
Friday 3 March - West Coast Fever v Adelaide Thunderbirds, Gold Netball Centre, Perth
Sunday 5 March - West Coast Fever v Adelaide Thunderbirds, Gold Netball Centre, Perth
Tickets for the Fever v Thunderbirds matches will go on sale at a later date.
