Super Netball: The key figures from West Coast Fever and Vixens who will decide the 2025 grand final
West Coast Fever will face Melbourne Vixens in the Super Netball grand final, and the 2025 premiers could very well be decided by one of these six people. Discover the keys to victory inside.
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The Super Netball season comes down to one final game this weekend, with dominant minor premiers West Coast Fever taking on the Melbourne Vixens in the grand final.
After losing their opening two games of the year, the Fever have been unbeaten in the past three months, winning 13 games on the trot and will head into the match as massive favourites.
After a shaky start to the year, the Vixens, who defied the odds to claw their way back from a 10-goal deficit at the final break in the preliminary final, have the chance to play in front of a huge home crowd at Rod Laver Arena.
There’s no love lost between these two clubs, setting the scene for a fantastic contest.
Here are the six figures who will have a massive impact on the clash.
Jhaniele Fowler-Nembhard (GS, Fever)
It’s no coincidence the Fever lost their opening two games of the season before Fowler-Nembhard made her return to the court in round three against the Vixens and have been undefeated since. The volume at which she shoots and her accuracy is unmatched throughout the league and if she gets the ball in a one-on-one contest, she’s almost untouchable. Finished with 790 goals this season (including six super shots) at an average of just over 52 per game and will again be the Fever’s scoring driver in the grand final. The 198cm target doesn’t just add scoring power though, it’s the confidence she gives the players around her that lifts the Fever.
Whether it’s her midcourt feeders, fellow shooters Shanice Beckford and Olivia Wilkinson, or even defenders who know any turnover ball they can crumb is almost certain to be converted at the other end of the court, Fowler-Nembhard makes the Fever a better team.
Vixens defender Jo Weston, who with ‘keeper Rudi Ellis will be tasked with stopping her, said Fowler-Nembhard was in career form. “She is such a potent target for them and I feel like she’s been playing the best this year that we’ve pretty much ever seen in her career,” Weston said. “But I think that’s what’s kind of exciting about it.” Given the herculean task of trying to stop her under the post, battles against the Fever become an exercise in trying to shut down supply outside the circle and the Vixens need to manufacture turnover ball before it gets to the Jamaican superstar.
After a heartbreaking start to the year, when she tragically lost a pregnancy, there will be plenty cheering Fowler-Nembhard on as she attempts to deliver a second premiership to the Fever.
Alice Teague-Neeld (WA, Fever)
Alice Teague-Neeld has continued to take her game at wing attack to new heights at the Fever this season and has earned a long-awaited Diamonds call-up for her efforts.
The 29-year-old is the playmaker of the Fever midcourt and has outstanding connection with Fowler-Nembhard after spending time with her in the goal circle in her early days at the club before her switch to wing attack.
Teague-Neeld can attack the circle edge, but she has the confidence to let the ball go from beyond the transverse line if necessary into the 198cm Jamaican target in the goal circle.
A premiership player with the Fever in 2023, Teague-Neeld leads the league this year in goal assists and centre pass receives and starred when the Fever last met the Vixens in Perth in round 14.
She finished that match with 32 goal assists, 37 feeds and four deflections.
Teague-Neeld will be matched up on by underrated Vixens defender Kate Eddy, but has the experience and smarts to work through the Vixens’ defensive traps.
Sunday Aryang (GD, Fever)
The incredible dominance of Fowler-Nembhard can seemingly diminish the importance of other figures in the team but the Fever’s defensive efforts have been key to their outstanding season, with Aryang in particular, in outstanding form.
The Diamonds defender was never poor but has improved through the season and heads into the grand final in the best form of her career.
Whether at goal defence or further up the court at wing defence, Aryang is shutting her opponents out of the game and beating her, or at least shaking her off enough to get free for a pass, will be pivotal to the Vixens’ game plan as they attempt to get good supply of ball into their shooters.
With Hannah Mundy injured and Zara Walters battling early in the preliminary final, the Vixens threw debutant Tara Watson into the fire and while Swifts defender Sharni Lambden had an at-times outstanding game, the Victorians will have to take their game up a gear to deal with the suffocating pressure they’re likely to face from Aryang.
Her ability to get herself into position to take an intercept, deflect a ball or snare a rebound is only surpassed by her ability to read the game and her knowledge of many of the Vixens players – especially Diamonds teammates and Vixens goalers Kiera Austin and Sophie Garbin – could be a game-changer.
Likely to start with the assignment on Austin, whose clutch shooting won her team a place in the final, Aryang’s efforts could make or break the Fever’s premiership chances.
Simone McKinnis (Coach, Vixens)
If there was any doubt about the motivation that the Vixens’ players have in wanting to send their long-time coach Simone McKinnis out on a high this season, look no further than their response to her rousing three-quarter time speech in their thrilling preliminary final win over the New South Wales Swifts. Staring at a 10-point deficit in what could have been her final match in charge, McKinnis delivered an emotional last-change rev-up that had the Vixens players hanging on her every word. You could hear the emotion in her voice as she instructed her players to do whatever was needed to do to get back in the game.
“Look at each other, we can do anything we want in this quarter,” McKinnis said.
“We have got nothing to lose here except for throwing our best selves at this contest.”
The response was nothing short of incredible as the Vixens roared back into the game in a 25-14 final quarter to clinch the match by a goal.
Captain Kate Moloney said the coach had been front of mind for her in the final quarter.
“For 15 minutes there, at three-quarter time, I thought this might be our coach’s last game and I wanted to go out there and give it everything because she deserves that,” Moloney told Fox Sports post-match.
McKinnis made the shock announcement in May that she would be standing down as head coach at the end of the season after 13 years in charge.
Already a two-time premiership coach at the Vixens, the Diamonds great steered the team to the 2014 and 2020 titles, minor premierships in 2017, 2020 and 2022, while they were also runners-up in the 2022 and 2024 Super Netball grand finals.
There will be no shortage of emotion driving the Vixens players for her in the grand final.
Kiera Austin (GA, Vixens)
She is considered the barometer for her team – when goal attack Kiera Austin fires, so do the Melbourne Vixens.
And Austin again showed how important she is to the side in their last-gasp preliminary final win over the Swifts.
For three quarters, Austin, by her lofty standards, had struggled to make a significant impact on the match as Swifts’ goal defence Maddy Turner wore her like a glove.
Up until the last quarter, Austin only had seven goals from 10 attempts to her name.
But the Diamonds’ star delivered when it mattered, attacking the two-point shot without fear in the final quarter to turn the match.
Austin nailed three super shots – she had four for the match – in the final power play period to help the Vixens claw back for the win.
“I was super proud (of her). It was just brave and courageous that she can do it and she found that spark in herself,” McKinnis said of Austin’s final quarter performance.
“We weren’t going to walk away from here not afraid to make a mistake or to not take risks, knowing that if a shot was there, you put it up.”
Austin will face plenty of attention from her Diamonds’ teammate Sunday Aryang in the grand final in what will be one of the match-ups of the decider.
Kate Moloney (C, Vixens)
Moloney is the spiritual leader of the Vixens and her emotion-charged speeches to her teammates in the huddle are legendary.
If anyone can get the Vixens’ players up for their biggest mission of the year against the ominous opposition that is the West Coast Fever, it is the midcourt star.
Moloney is the engine in the Vixens’ midcourt, arguably their most consistent player across the season and was the top-ranked player on court in the preliminary final win.
The 32-year-old is one of the most experienced players in not just the Vixens’ line-up, but the league and rarely gets flustered on court.
Her experience will be critical in steadying the side ahead of their second straight grand final appearance.
For her own part, Moloney will have a big role on opposition centre Jordan Cransberg, who has been rock solid in the midcourt for the Fever all year.
Moloney was the top-ranked Vixens’ player in the team’s two losses to the Fever in round three and round 14 this year.
Wore down an injury-affected Swifts captain Paige Hadley in the preliminary final and will use her huge motor to test Cransberg in an effort to slow the flow of ball into the Fever circle and star goaler Jhaniele Fowler-Nembhard. After playing all but the first season of her national league career under coach Simone McKinnis, will be desperate to send her coach out on a high note in front of a home crowd at Melbourne’s Rod Laver Arena.
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