Adelaide Thunderbirds seal minor premiership as teams call for third Super Netball round
The Adelaide Thunderbirds have locked up top spot — but it’s come at a cost — while two Super Netball teams have pleaded for more games to be added to the home-and-away season. SUPER NETBALL LATEST
Netball
Don't miss out on the headlines from Netball. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Adelaide Thunderbirds 64 defeated Sunshine Coast Lightning 62
The Adelaide Thunderbirds have taken fate into their own hands, with a hard fought two-point win over Sunshine Coast Lightning delivering them their first Super Netball minor premiership in 11 years, as well as a crucial home semi-final.
It came at a cost however, with rising star Lauren Frew limping from the court after re-injuring her ankle, and facing a race against time to be finals-ready against the Melbourne Vixens next week.
While the ladder wasn’t decided until the last few minutes of the regular season, Thunderbirds will now have the double chance at home against the Vixens. Lightning’s first loss in Adelaide leaves them with a tough task ahead, heading to West Coast Fever’s fortress in Perth for the knockout semi.
Ten minutes into the match, when Frew was forced off the court with the repeated injury from two weeks ago that landed her in a temporary moon boot, a reshuffle of the attacking end saw Georgie Horjus slot seamlessly into goal attack, finishing the match with 14/18, including four super shots to earn MVP.
Horjus was confident her team could bring home the title.
“We hope we can go back to back,” she said.
“Hopefully, we can do the fans proud. The pink army gets us over the line every week.”
With Lightning missing their super shot specialist Reilley Batcheldor, out with injury, the pressure was on Steph Fretwell and Cara Koenen to deliver. All was working seamlessly until a collision with Latanya Wilson saw Koenen exit the court for treatment. The Lightning shooter was absent for a mere three minutes, but Thunderbirds pounced on the opportunity to take a six goal lead into the main break.
While Koenen re-entered the fray, she hit the deck a number of times and didn’t look comfortable under the post.
Koenen was pleased with her side’s outing, despite ending up on the wrong end of the scoreboard.
“To put up 62 goals against the best defensive line in the league is something we’ll take a lot of confidence from,” she said.
“We really took it to them which is exciting, but we had a few lapses that if we build on and iron out we can really compete in finals”
Lightning coach Belinda Reynolds called for bravery from her troops and they responded, locking scores up. However a fumble from Tara Hinchliffe with one minute to go, allowed Thunderbirds to slip away with the knowledge they can win a close match.
Top scorer Romelda Aiken-George wasn’t just content with shooting from under the post, adding some lay-ups to her haul of 44/51.
Thunderbirds coach Tania Obst was adamant her team wouldn’t dwell on the minor premiership for too long.
“We need to enjoy these moments, they don’t come around very often but we will shift our attention to the Vixens quickly,” she said.
“We’ll look at what they’ve done over the last few weeks to stategise our game plan and be ready for Saturday.”
VENUE DILEMMA
The Adelaide Entertainment Centre has been an impenetrable fortress for the Thunderbirds in 2024, winning seven from seven games this year. This will have them brimming with confidence ahead of the grand final, should they make it, as it is to be played there in three weeks time. However, as Thunderbirds prepare to host the major semi-final next week a change of venue is in order, with the Entertainment Centre already occupied. They will instead suit up at Adelaide Arena which hosts 8000, still likely to leave fans without tickets, as 9248 people turned out for their final regular season game.
SUPER NETBALL ‘NEEDS A THIRD HOME-AND-AWAY ROUND’
NSW Swifts 71 defeated Giants 71
By Kate Allman
Two Super Netball teams have pleaded for more games to be added to the home-and-away season, urging that they have more to give after finishing the 2024 season in the bottom three spots on the ladder.
The pleas came in the wake of a sold-out NSW derby that came down to the wire, with the Giants throwing away a three-quarter lead to go down 72-71 in the final seconds of the game in Sydney on Sunday.
The result handed the Giants their first wooden spoon in the club’s existence and represents the first time the netball stronghold of NSW has seen both its Super Netball clubs finish at the bottom of the ladder.
“I would love to play more matches, 14 seems really short. I’d love to play a third round and it could be just random whether you’re home or away for the third time you play teams,” Swifts shooter Helen Housby said.
“14 rounds goes so quick when we do such a long pre-season. It would be exciting to see if we could work that into the league.”
Despite their final-round victory, the Swifts have played a season to forget. They came within one point of a premiership in 2023 but this year suffered seven losses in a row as they were rocked by a social media scandal and the dramatic departure of their former goal shooter Sam Wallace-Joseph.
For the Giants, crumbling in front of 10,000 fans was the second loss they have suffered at the hands of their cross-town rivals this season, and ensured the Carole Sykes memorial trophy will remain in Swifts camp until next season. Giants coach Julie Fitzgerald echoed the call for more matches as she lamented the team’s lack of finishing ability.
“I’d give anything for a third round. If you look at how much we’ve improved from round one to round two, I’d give anything to be able to start another round now,” she said.
UNEEQ MOVES
With both teams’ coaches in the middle of multi-year contracts, club management will need to look across the court to make changes.
Fitzgerald would not comment on where those changes might come from, however Akle hinted that she may have found a goal shooter for the Swifts in Tongan international Uneeq Palavi.
“Having worked with her at the World Cup [as a Specialist Coach for Tonga], I certainly knew what she was capable of. She brings this joy in her play that I think we’ve been missing for the past two months … Her future is anything she wants it to be,” Akle said.
Palavi started the season as a training partner for the Melbourne Mavericks but was injected into Swifts camp in round 11 when Sam Wallace-Joseph dramatically left the team for rumoured behavioural issues.
While there are concerns about her 179cm height, Palavi swotted those away with physicality and creative workarounds, including an astonishing self-pass rebound off the goal post to move closer under the net before shooting in the round 14 win. She finished the game with a match-high 43 goals from 45 attempts, plus one Super Shot from three.
WEST COAST FEVER SEAL FINALS BERTH
West Coast Fever 76 defeated Melbourne Mavericks 57
By Georgia Doyle
West Coast Fever have claimed a Super Netball finals berth after beating the Melbourne Mavericks 76-57, but will likely fall heartbreakingly short of second place on the ladder and a double chance.
The equation was straightforward, albeit hefty — beat Mavericks by at least 24 points, and hope for a Thunderbirds’ defeat, to lift themselves higher than third place on the ladder.
The 19-point margin proved so near, yet so far for Fever, as their struggle defending against the supershot, combined with a lack of scoring their own, cost them dearly. They finished with just three to the Mavericks’ five super shots, which made bridging the gap too difficult, leaving them destined to finish second or third pending further results.
Mavericks also had their own season at stake, as a win would have provided them a slim chance to make finals. As well as asking her players to shoot long, Mavericks coach Tracey Neville did everything she could to force a different result, swinging positional changes and urging her players on. Calling for more effort she said: “Get off the body, we’re being lazy, we need to work harder and want it. We need twos.”
Despite their best efforts, the result didn’t go Mavericks way, leaving them pondering what could have been, had they not lost two players to the long term injury list before the season even began.
Tracey Neville and Dan Ryan played cat and mouse with a raft of changes throughout the game. With the scoreline edging out to seven, Gabby Sinclair was injected alongside Eleanor Cardwell to capitalise on the super shot period. Both players nailed the brief, drawing the margin back to just four at the main break.
With so much on the line for both teams, there was physicality all over the court. From the opening whistle players were hitting the deck, as the penalty count rose. Mavericks finished with 65 penalties to Fever’s 51.
Coach Ryan was concerned about the physicality, speaking to his players about the close attention being paid to star shooter Jhaniele Fowler-Nembhard. The issue was raised with the umpires, but it did little to quell the exhausting torrent of hits. Nonetheless, Fowler-Nembhard managed to put out an MVP performance with 68/69, including one super shot.
The Mavericks may not have had the emphatic entry to Super Netball they were hoping for, ravaged with injury to key players across the club’s short lifespan to date. A fifth-place finish, while no doubt below the hefty expectations of head coach Tracey Neville, is a good building block on which to head into 2025 with the return of Sasha Glasgow and Lauren Moore return set to bolster the line up.
SHOOTER SURPLUS
The Melbourne Mavericks face a tough decision ahead of season 2025, with Sasha Glasgow set to return from injury there are four shooters that need to fit into three contracts. Shimona Jok has spearheaded the start up side, as their leading goal scorer in a season where she was set to ride the bench as a training partner. Glasgow’s return will likely see Gabby Sinclair on the out, despite her crafty court play and long bomb heroics being a key contributor to many of the Maverick’s tight wins.
RAVAILLION’S FAIRYTALE FINISH DASHED AS VIXENS DOWN FIREBIRDS
Melbourne Vixens 62 defeated Queensland Firebirds 52
By Katrina Nissen
The Melbourne Vixens have squashed Kim Ravaillion’s hopes of a fairytale end to her illustrious netball career as they ran out 10-point victors over the retiring captain’s embattled Queensland Firebirds.
An emotional Ravaillion struggled for words post match, but said: “Finishing here in front of the incredible crowd is surreal I’ve played with some bloody incredible players, but finishing here, it means everything.”
With their 62-52 win, the Vixens have clawed their way back into Super Netball minor premiership contention, but will have an anxious wait for other results as they could still finish anywhere between first and third.
If the Thunderbirds win Sunday’s match against the Sunshine Coast Lightning, they bump Vixens to second, while Fever can also muscle their way higher if they win their match against the Mavericks by more than 22.
Vixens coach Simone McKinnis wasn’t bothered about the wait for results.
“Depending on results on Sunday night, it will influence how we prepare for the week ahead,” she said.
“It is exciting. Our mindset is that we are not fussed about what is around us. We are in control of our game.”
For the first time since Round 3, the Vixens had their full contracted 10 available for the match. For most teams, a revolving door of injuries would cause disruption as players moved in and out of the game-day squad. But for the Vixens, it was business as usual as each reintroduced team member slotted in effortlessly.
Vixens signalled their premiership intentions early as they stormed their way to a six-point lead within the first five minutes of play.
Unsurprisingly the message to the Firebirds from co-coach, Rose Jencke, was to work harder. While their intensity lifted, they still trailed the Vixens by two heading into the first break. By the end of the third term, the Vixens held a handy 10-point lead which proved too much for the Firebirds to hunt down.
While there were key match-ups all across the court, one of the most tantalising was between Vixen Jo Weston and Firebird Lara Dunkley. The physicality between the former teammates was a sight to behold with Dunkley sent sprawling early in the second quarter. However, Weston’s long reach did little to squash Dunkley’s connection to her shooters, as she finished with 33 feeds including 16 goal assists.
The injury to Dunkley made way for Ravallion to enter the match to riotous applause from the sold out Nissan Arena crowd. Ravallion’s combined 20-minutes in the second and fourth quarters earned her three goal assists and a pick up.
Shooting accuracy has been a sticking point for the Firebirds all season with today’s match no different. At half time their percentage was at a lowly 70 per cent. Donnell Wallam was their top scorer at 41 from 54 for 76 per cent. There was no such issue down the Vixens shooting end, with Diamond duo Kiera Austin and Sophie Garbin combining for an impressive 91 per cent for the match. Austin finished with MVP honours, scoring 24 from 29.
The Firebirds’ best hope is to remain in sixth place if the Sydney Derby results go their way. They will be hoping for a higher finish next season as the hunt for their new head coach continues.
RAV RETIRES
Today’s match was the last Super Netball match for Kim Ravaillion, who, earlier in the week, announced she was ‘graduating’ into the next phase of her life. The Firebirds’ captain is a two-time premiership winner, a multi-Commonwealth Games medallist and a World Cup champion. Ravaillion famously started her professional netball career at 19 years of age, in the green and gold, before stepping on to a national level court. She played 156 national league matches and represented Australia 60 times.
Speaking to the media before the match, Ravaillion was reflecting on her Firebirds journey. “I’ve had a week to sit back and reflect,” she said.
“There’s been some incredible moments in the purple dress. The first four years were incredible, and as soon as I left, I wanted to come back, so to be finishing here in front of the fans and my family is so special.”
Originally published as Adelaide Thunderbirds seal minor premiership as teams call for third Super Netball round
REPLAYS: Marie Little Shield national netball c’ships, finals day
It was billed as a showdown between the two Marie Little Shield powerhouses, but one side had other ideas at the national netball championships. Watch all four play-off REPLAYS.
Netball NZ has say on player eligibility, trans-Tasman future
With New Zealand star shooter bound for Super Netball, Netball NZ chief executive Jennie Wyllie discusses with REBECCA WILLIAMS national team player eligibility, trans-Tasman future and more.