Super Netball: Mary Cholhok helps Firebirds to historic win over Giants
Sydney Swifts import Grace Nweke and Queensland Firebirds signing Mary Cholhok have made strong starts to life in Super Netball with standout debuts as their teams recorded opening round wins.
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Grace Nweke has underlined her status as a superstar of the sport with a dominant Super Netball debut that has helped the NSW Swifts set an early benchmark as the team to beat this season.
It may seem an audacious call to anoint last season’s strugglers as the pacesetters after just one game – especially after the defending premiers dismantled the runners-up in a precise performance.
But Nweke’s 52 goals in the Swifts’ 67-49 victory over the West Coast Fever in Perth, showed why so many are excited about Briony Akle’s side.
The Fever had a new-look shooting circle without star Jhaniele Fowler-Nembhard and while young gun Olivia Wilkinson shows plenty of upside, they will struggle to pour in the same volume of goals as they have since Fowler-Nembhard joined the league in 2018.
BIG NAME, BIG GAME
Ugandan super shooter Mary Cholhok put on a show when she made her Super Netball debut in Sunday’s opening match but Nweke was on another level, finishing with 52 goals at 87 per cent.
The Kiwi is arguably the best goaler in world netball at the moment and gave up eligibility for her beloved Silver Ferns to test herself in the world’s best league to ensure she is at her best for New Zealand in the next World Cup in 2027.
And her introduction to the world’s best league seemed seamless, with her combination with fellow international Helen Housby and midcourt feeders Paige Hadley and Verity Simmons posing enormous questions to the Fever – in a combination that will send shivers down the spines of other opponents.
SISTERS IN ARMS
It was a tough night for the Fever – who have not experienced too many 18-goal losses at RAC Arena – but there were a few highlights, including the defensive combination of the Aryang sisters.
While Diamond Sunday and sister Ruth player together last year when Ruth was the nominated player, the pair will be regulars this year in exciting times for Fever fans.
Expect to see Sunday further up the court at wing defence more often this season, with Ruth likely to be used in rotation with Kadie-Ann Dehaney and Fran Williams in the circle.
Mwai Kumwenda also made her Fever debut, coming on in the third term in her return from maternity leave after the birth of her first child last year.
Kumwenda’s return was a good news story but with Fowler-Nembhard – for whom she stepped in as a permanent replacement player this season – set to return to the Fever fold after tragically miscarrying, the club and Netball Australia face a tricky time rewriting policy to facilitate that change.
SWIFTS HAVE DEPTH
While Nweke was the focus of Sunday’s match, another pair of newcomers made their own mark, with Sharni Lambden and Verity Simmons also shining.
Lambden, a former training partner at the Vixens, who has had only sporadic chances at the top level, has forced her way into Akle’s starting seven at wing defence and shone, disrupting the Fever’s midcourt rhythm and playing 55 minutes in her debut in the red dress.
Simmons also made a strong return to Super Netball after a season playing AFLW and showed what an asset she will be feeding Nweke, with her outstanding vision and eyes-up play.
“It’s nice to have a target that big and someone so athletic,” she told Fox Netball of playing with Nweke.
“I think I’m still finding my feet on the feed, really different to Jhaniele, holds really differently – as crazy as that sounds being two athletic big shooters, complete opposites in how they work.
“She’s a freak of an athlete and she’s only going to get bigger and better, which is quite scary.”
NSW SWIFTS 67 (Nweke 52, Housby 15)
WEST COAST FEVER 49 (Wilkinson 32, Kumwenda 9, Beckford 8)
Firebirds import stars in historic win over Giants
If star goaler Mary Cholhok can start her Super Netball journey with 43 goals – despite making 13 misses along the way – imagine what she’ll do when she’s really up and running.
Cholhok, the Queensland Firebirds star import, was dominant, as expected, in her side’s hard-fought 62-57 victory over the Giants.
Heading into the ninth season of the league, the Firebirds had never before won a round one match and were desperate to rewrite history.
They looked set to do that in a canter when they raced to a seven-goal lead at the first break, the Giants at sixes and sevens through the midcourt and struggling to deliver ball to shooters Sophie Dwyer and Matisse Letherbarrow, who started in place of co-captain Jo Harten after her wife gave birth to their first child earlier this week.
But the injection of teen tyro Hope White at wing attack turned the match for the Giants, who momentarily took the lead in a second term they won 19-13, before heading to halftime trailing by one.
The Firebirds, who also added English midcourter Imogen Allison to their squad in the off-season, are still coming together, especially learning to feed their 201cm goal shooter and struggled at times to get the ball where it needed to go.
But they edged ahead by five by the final break and managed to keep that margin until the final hooter to seal a crucial win.
It wasn’t all bad news for the Giants though, with the emergence of White, the performance of goalkeeper Erin O’Brien, who held her own against Cholhok, and the effort of Letherbarrow, giving them plenty of hope that the struggles of last season can be cast aside.
BIRDIES UNDER SPOTLIGHT
The Firebirds had headed into the match under a searing spotlight following Netball Australia’s release a fortnight ago of the findings of an independent investigation into the club following a complaint from former player Remi Kamo of a toxic and bullying culture.
The independent investigation found no breaches of the governing body’s policies, but with criticism from Kamo and the Australian Netball Players Association saying the matter is not yet closed from their perspective, the Firebirds spent the final stages of the pre-season under plenty of pressure.
New coach, Kiwi Kiri Wills, has spent plenty of time on setting new benchmarks and there has been roster turnover and the signing of two new imports in Cholhok and Allison.
But with the time for talk over, the clash against last year’s wooden spooners would set the tone for the season and the Firebirds’ ability to hold their nerve when the home side came back at them would have pleased plenty.
Player of the match Macy Gardner, who finished with 10 goal assists and 27 feeds playing at both centre and wing attack was proud of her team’s ability to “ride the wave” and stick with the game plan.
“We’ve worked really hard this pre-season and for us to come out round one and win is really good for us and for our confidence,” she said.
“For us, it’s also about being able to adapt on court and when the Giants threw a few different things at us it was really important for us to be able to adapt and change and I thought we did that really well.”
FEEDING THE BEST
Cholhok arrived in Super Netball after a hugely successful career in England where she finished with multiple scoring titles and premierships.
At 201cm, she’s easily the tallest player in the league but there’s much more to getting her the ball than just hoicking it into the circle.
One of the issues for former shooter Donnell Wallam was the ability of her midcourters to get her quick, clean ball and it’s something the team is still working on with Cholhok as they get used to their new strike shooter.
Cholhok will want to improve her 77 per cent accuracy, although her height allowed her to get plenty of ball back and her 11 rebounds were crucial to the outcome.
What has become evident though is that Cholhok won’t play a lone hand.
Wills is adamant her goal attack has to be a scoring threat and not just another feeder for Cholhok and starting goal attack Emily Moore showed she was ready to take that role on, especially during the super shot period, where she finished with three-of-four attempts.
WELCOME TO THE SHOW
Plenty have had wraps on Giants youngster White, believing the teen was a talent of the future.
But when former Silver Ferns captain Gina Crampton announced her pregnancy, White was added to the Giants’ 10 and thrust into the action early in the second quarter, thrown into the deep end with the Giants trailing by seven.
Rated in a pre-season poll of the Super Netball captains as a youngster to watch, White is proving her many admirers right.
While Maddie Hay, at her best, is outstanding, White changed the pace of the game when she came in, looking directly to the circle and feeding Matisse Letherbarrow and Sophie Dwyer without fear.
Veteran coach Julie Fitzgerald has a massive opinion of the young gun.
“For a kid her age, she’s got such a level head,” Fitzgerald told Fox Netball during the telecast.
“She knows what she’s doing out there, she knows when to hold the ball.
“I’m really excited by what Hope can do and when you think she’s only 18, there’s a long way to go.”
Her effectiveness was blunted somewhat in the second half, when Wills put co-captain Hulita Veve on at wing defence, the veteran able to run with the youngster and match her in the air in a tagging role.
QUEENSLAND FIREBIRDS 62 (Cholhok 43, Moore 14, Dwan 5)
GIANTS NETBALL 57 (Letherbarrow 41, Dwyer 14, Harten 2)
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Originally published as Super Netball: Mary Cholhok helps Firebirds to historic win over Giants
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