NSW Swifts crash land against Queensland Firebirds in Super Netball
THE NSW Swifts have crashed down the rankings in Super Netball after the Queensland Firebirds snapped the clubs three-game winning run with a 60-57 triumph in Brisbane.
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THE NSW Swifts have crashed down the rankings in Super Netball - and the Giants bumped out of second place - after the Queensland Firebirds snapped the clubs three-game winning run with a 60-57 triumph in Brisbane on Sunday.
The three-goal victory was payback for the Swifts beating the Firebirds in the first match of the season - a result which has stung the Brisbane based team for the past two months.
It had further repercussions for NSW netball with the win seeing the Firebird’s dislodge the Giants from second place overall on the league ladder.
The Swifts went into the match knowing victory would leave them in the top four and with confidence, having beaten defending Super Netball champions Lightning 59-58 just a week earlier.
But the Firebirds had other ideas, with the victory crucial to their own bid of making the semi-finals this season.
“We just coughed up the ball too much,’’ said Swifts coach Briony Akle. “And at crunch times we succumbed to pressure. It was one hard, tough game and we couldn’t get there.’’
While the Swifts actually have two more wins under their belts than Lighting, they are now placed sixth - below the defending champions in fifth place - thanks to the new, controversial bonus point system which penalises teams for their inability to win as many quarters as other sides.
Also on the wrong side of the new bonus system are the Giants, who have one less loss than the Firebirds this season but have lost second place thanks to the Firebirds winning every quarter of Sunday’s match.
At the end of the round, West Coast Fever leads Super Netball from the Firebirds, Giants, Vixens, Lightning, Swifts, Magpies and Thunderbirds.
In Sunday’s other game, the Melbourne Vixens reigned in their battle with cross-town rivals, the Collingwood Magpies.
With Mwai Kumwenda netting all but one of her 43 attempts, the Vixens took the match 65-57.
On Saturday, the Giants and Lighting recorded a 53-53 draw and West Coast Fever protected their top ranking with an emphatic 76-56 trouncing of the Adelaide Thunderbirds.