West Coast Fever showed they are a team chasing Championship glory after their 74-62 first round win against Adelaide Thunderbirds at Nissan Arena.
Fever’s preparation against Adelaide was not ideal, but the team’s mantra of controlling the controllable paid off as does hard work and determination, for no one more so than goal attack Alice Teague-Neeld, and she didn’t disappoint with a player of the match performance.
Teague-Neeld's performance comes off the back of a grueling pre-season, which was extended due to the COVID lockdown. Starting in goal attack, Teague-Neeld burst onto the court demanding the ball and putting some early goals on the scoreboard. Her high lob passes to goal shooter Jhaniele Fowler had Thunderbirds scrambling for a new game plan. Teague-Neeld finished with 4/4 super shots and 19 goal assists.
"It's been a long pre-season (but) it was just a matter of going out there and having fun, because I really enjoyed that," the goal attack said.
Fowler did most of the damage of her 53 goals from close range on Saturday, barely needing the assistance of netball's innovative two-point super shot to crush the Thunderbirds at Brisbane's Nissan Arena.
The towering goal shooter said she benefited from "getting netball out of my brain" in a stress-free build-up to the game during which she shot two super goals.
"I'm just embracing it," Fowler said of the controversial rule change.
Until Wednesday morning, Fever were preparing themselves for a season-opening showdown with the Giants in Sydney.
But games in NSW were rescheduled due to the coronavirus pandemic, with the Fever instead packing their bags for a Queensland assignment.
Fever goal shooter Fowler was the dominant figure in the first half, winning the hotly anticipated duel with Jamaican teammate, Adelaide's Shamera Sterling.
Emma Cosh made her debut with five minutes remaining in the fourth quarter and she got to work straight away scoring her first super shot in the league.
