Super Netball 2024: Swifts and Giants battle to avoid the wooden spoon in the final round of the Super Netball season

This weekend’s Sydney derby will be a battle to avoid the wooden spoon rather than any glory. How did it all go so wrong for the Swifts and Giants this season? REBECCA WILLIAMS and EMMA GREENWOOD report.

The Sydney derby is normally a marquee game on the Super Netball calendar for the New South Wales Swifts and the Giants.

There is always a bit of extra spice in the cross-town battle between the two Harbour City franchises.

But there will be added weight to this year’s final-round clash for undesirable reasons as both teams fight to avoid the wooden spoon.

Sunday’s season-ending match will bring to end what has been a challenging campaign for the Sydney combatants, who occupy the bottom two spots on the Super Netball ladder with only three wins apiece.

For the Swifts, in particular, it has been a dramatic tumble after they played off in last year’s grand final, which they lost by just one goal to the Adelaide Thunderbirds.

It’s a scenario former Swift and Diamond Cath Cox didn’t see coming.

“I don’t ever recall a year where the two Sydney teams have been on the bottom together. I can’t recall a year where any Sydney teams have been on the bottom, actually,” Cox said.

“So to have both of them sitting down there is really crazy and it makes you think, ‘Is it a pathways issue, what’s going on?’

“But then you look at the calibre of players in each of the sides and I think it just comes to them not performing.”

Catherine Cox believes the Giants need to reinvigorate their line-up in the off-season. Picture: Matt King/Getty Images

The Swifts won their corresponding clash against the Giants in round six in May – but that has turned out to be the team’s last victory.

The club’s campaign has not been without drama after the parted ways with import shooter Sam Wallace-Joseph by mutual agreement in mid-June following an issue relating to what was described as “behaviour within the team environment”.

While the club has divulged little about the unprecedented departure since then, Cox had little doubt it had shaken the squad more than had been let on.

But she said the Swifts should have been able to bounce back by now.

“I think it had more of an impact than we know …. in terms of what the club is letting on,” the Fox Sports commentator said.

“It’s a really close-knit group and she was a very close part of that group and a big part of that group.

“I think for what went on to have gone on really threw them and it has taken them a long time to adjust to that.

“Having said that though, it is only one player they are missing and this is a quality group of experienced, elite athletes that should have been able to get a win since then.

“I understand in the early days trying to navigate it and how difficult it was and how it all threw them, but in terms of being able to bounce back, they should have done that by now.

“If they can’t get a win this weekend then they really do need to have a good hard look at themselves.”

Helen Housby and the Swifts haven’t won since round six against the Giants. Picture: Matt King/Getty Images

The Giants have been winless since round nine and Cox pointed the finger at an undersized defence as an underlying issue this season.

“I feel like any team that doesn’t have a tall defender is going to get killed,” Cox said.

“You look at (Jhaniele) Fowler-Nembhard, your (Donnell) Wallams and your (Romelda) Aiken-Georges, you can’t compete with them unless you have got a decent defence line.

“Jodi-Ann Ward in the light of day wasn’t the recruit that they were hoping she would be. Initially when she got picked up we were all like ‘That’s a brilliant recruitment’.

“But I don’t think she has had a great season, certainly by her standards. So that has been an issue for them as well.

“It really is that defence and then you throw into the fact that obviously (veteran goaler) Jo Harten is on managed minutes …. I mean she can play but I’m not sure how much training she is actually getting under her belt during the weeks.

“You can tell that looking at her play, too, she’s not where she used to be …. having said that she is still amazing and she can still pull some incredible games out.”

So, what needs to change for next season for the Sydney teams?

Cox said finding the right long-term replacement for Wallace-Joseph was going to be critical.

The messy departure of Sam Wallace-Joseph usetteled the Swifts. Picture: Matt King/Getty Images

“The Swifts have only got one off-contract and that’s Lilli Gorman-Brown,” Cox said.

“They need to obviously replace Sam and I think Uneeq Palavi has been good for them, but I don’t know that she is the answer long-term though.

“There are rumours of Grace Nweke from New Zealand floating around. I think New Zealand is about to open up the rules of players being able to come over and play in the Suncorp Super Netball. My god, if they picked up a Grace Nweke, you’d have to put them down as premiership winners already.

“But they are very close, it is only one person they have got to replace, the rest of their team has been playing in grand finals the last four or five years, it’s crazy to think they have gone

from where they were to the bottom.”

Young Swifts shooter Sophie Fawns has tasted almost every emotion in her three years in Super Netball, from the elation of a grand final appearance to the misery of a turbulent 2024 season.

And on Sunday, they want to wipe the slate clean and finish the year well.

Swifts shooter Sophie Fawns and Giants co-captain Jo Harten ahead of the NSW derby, which will determine who ends up with the wooden spoon. Photo: Max Mason-Hubers

“We want to finish on a high note and look at rebuilding for next season and what we can do since this season hasn’t panned out the way that we’ve wanted it to,” Fawns said.

“No one wants to finish on a loss. And then looking into the future of next year.”

Fawns agreed with Cox that only small tweaks were needed to push the club back to the top of the tree.

“I think this year, teams just happened to have worked us out and worked out our strategy from last year, and this year didn’t work for us.

“Looking into next year we’ll definitely be looking to different game plans and seeing what we can do to have a bit more up our sleeves.”

Cox believed the Giants’ line-up also needed tweaking at either end of the court.

“For the Giants it is a big recruitment look as well,” Cox said.

“Defensively and in attack for me. I think the midcourt is pretty rock solid, but they need some work up either end for sure.”

Just three Giants players are off contract at the end of 2024, so regeneration will not be easy but co-captain Jo Harten believes things can be turned around by those already there.

“There is still all to play for,” Harten said.

“Most of the girls are signed on for two years at the Giants, so we do look ahead to the future, we look to build and we’re trying to leave a big legacy for our club.”

Originally published as Super Netball 2024: Swifts and Giants battle to avoid the wooden spoon in the final round of the Super Netball season