Super Netball: Emily Mannix on Vixens preliminary final rematch against the Giants

The Vixens surged back to defeat the Giants in last year’s preliminary final, a moment that proved to be a turning point for Melbourne’s star defender, Emily Mannix.

It was a surreal moment of clarity in the instant that mattered most.

Vixens defender Emily Mannix wishes she could experience the same feeling every match - an almost instinctual feel for exactly where the ball was going to be and getting her hands there to cut it off before it could reach its intended target.

Mannix’s Vixens had trailed by nine goals heading into the final quarter of their preliminary final against the Giants last season, with the minor premiers long odds to fight back to make the grand final.

But they surged back in the final term, clawing their way to and unlikely 55-54 win as Mannix flew to take a scintillating intercept that sealed passage to the grand final.

Emily Mannix’s scintillating intercept in last year’s preliminary sealed the Vixens’ passage to the grand final. Picture: Getty Images

The moment sent the John Cain Arena crowd into raptures and social media images flowed in the days following including NBA player Joe Ingles, the husband of former Vixens and Diamonds star Renae, with his mouth agape, and former Labor leader Bill Shorten punching the air in jubilation.

“I remember jumping up and down like we’d won the grand final,” Mannix said ahead of the teams’ rematch at John Cain Arena on Sunday.

“I always laugh at people when they celebrate like that in games that are not vital - but I was one of those people.

“It’s embarrassing looking back on it but it was such an amazing moment.”

While it’s a moment the Giants will not want to remember, for Mannix it was the start of things falling back into place.

The former Diamonds defender has endured a rough couple of years with injury, undergoing hip surgeries in 2020 and 2021 and a frustrating stint on the sidelines with a broken knuckle that eventually required her going under the knife again.

“I felt like everything got thrown at me and also as a team,” Mannix said.

“We’d just come off a premiership but we were we’re losing every game, so it was actually really hard to go from almost on top of the world to the bottom of the ocean, I guess.

“It was quite overwhelming and a really hard year mentally for me.

Emily Mannix with Mwai Kumwenda after the Vixens’ round two Super Netball win over Collingwood. Picture: Getty Images

“I struggled with feeling like I belonged out there at times, which is a really hard place to be.

“To bounce back in 2022 and being able to train again and feel good - it took a while … but I feel in a really good place at the moment and having another pre-season where I’m actually training and feeling fit and being able to train with the team makes a huge difference confidence wise.”

The Vixens made a conscious decision to play last year’s preliminary final out to the bitter end, a never say die spirit that was on display again last week in their one-goal derby victory over the Magpies.

As controversial as that game was, it showed that Mannix and the Vixens will fight to the final buzzer and it’s something they’re determined to do against the Giants again on Sunday.

Losing the game hit hard for the 2021 grand finalists, who believed they had the team to challenge Fever for the title in the West.

While the Giants were woeful in their opening game on the Sunshine Coast, they were without captain Jo Harten and injured midcourter Maddie Hay and with the pair back last week they pushed the Fever to within a goal and showed they will be contenders again in 2023.

That alone will be little relief for a team that sits at 0-2 for the current season and will be desperate to get a win on board in their first match back at John Cain Arena since that fateful preliminary final.

“Ever since that prelim final loss, we’ve wanted to play them the next day if we could,” Giants shooter Sophie Dwyer said.

“It’s definitely been a long time coming and we’ve been preparing really well. It was obviously a pleasing last quarter for us against the Fever, so we’re taking a lot of that momentum into this game and we can’t wait to hopefully get one better than the prelim final last year.”

Netball’s review ‘PR middle finger to fans’

Netball Australia has come up with the PR equivalent of the middle finger to fans and clubs after releasing a 6pm statement on a Friday afternoon announcing the outcome of a review into the calamitous abandoned match between the Adelaide Thunderbirds and NSW Swifts.

The review into two separate issues — the difference in surface between the sponsorship decals and the court itself — and a power outage caused by an issue at a nearby high-voltage transformer that ultimately forced the match to be abandoned led to the league confirming the match would be declared a draw, with the goals for and against to remain at 25-25, the score when the match was halted.

It was also determined that Netball Australia will now assess and approve courts prior to the first match of the season commencing to ensure they align with league standards.

Fans hold their phones as torches during the power cut.

Netball Australia will also action an additional sign off of the Netball SA Stadium playing surface on Wednesday 5 April ahead of Thunderbirds Round 4 match.

The league is working to improve its critical incident management plan and will continue to work with venues and suppliers to ensure any court surface issues are identified and rectified in an improved time frame.

With the review taking almost a week to determine exactly what was decided last Sunday, both teams had been set to head into their next Super Netball fixture with no certainty around the result of the last.

While they now have that, it’s likely to be little comfort, given the 25-25 scoreline could adversely affect both teams’ overall percentage this season and therefore, their chance of making the finals.

The Thunderbirds thank fans who stayed during the power outage.

While the score gives both teams a match percentage of 100, the low overall tally has affected their season percentage.

The Swifts missed the finals by a single goal last year and failure to designate a higher for and against for each team is likely to have a bearing on the finals.

Conditions at Netball SA Stadium will not be an issue this week, with the Thunderbirds heading to the Sunshine Coast for Saturday’s clash against top-of-the-table Lightning.

The Thunderbirds hang on to their place in the top four courtesy of their round 1 win, while the Swifts are languishing in sixth place after losing their season-opener to the Magpies.

Speaking on the Nothing But Net … Ball podcast, Swifts defender Sarah Klau, who played – or started at least – her 100th game on the weekend, said the whole situation was “sad”.

“The fact that not one thing but two things got in our way, I honestly still don’t know how to feel about the weekend,” South Australian product Klau said.

Georgie Horjus in possession during the abandoned match.

“It’s extremely disappointing, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a netball game cease at halftime and it was just disappointing because I really felt coming off round 1 against the Pies, it just wasn’t the quality that we stand for and our expectations are a lot higher than that and I finally felt and the team felt that (against Adelaide) we were combining, we were connected and we were building and I just had a really good feeling about that second half.”

Klau said coach who has suffered her own ACL tear on the Adelaide court, made the call that her team would not play on what it considered an unsafe surface.

“Briony herself has actually done an ACL on that court … so once they raised that to our attention, you can’t go out there and put yourself at risk.

“If something were to happen, you’d be kicking yourself. I believe that the Thunderbirds had already trained on the court and they were happy to go ahead, I’m not sure if the doctor was on board or not but obviously it wasn’t a great situation and ultimately, they asked Briony if we were happy to continue with the game as the conditions were.

“It was a lot of pressure for Briony to make that decision, I don’t think it was fair. Luckily the integrity team was there to support the process but essentially it just wasn’t worth the risk and we said no, unfortunately, we’re not happy.

“The risk was just too high and we had to put our wellbeing at the forefront.

“Hopefully there’s a big learning from this and it doesn’t happen again.”

Klau said one of the most frustrating issues was that if the court issue had been identified earlier in the day, it could have been rectified in time for the match to start as scheduled, something that would have made the power outage moot.

The Swifts will play their opening home game against the Queensland Firebirds on Saturday, celebrating the 200th national league game of Romelda Aiken.