Giants ready to take leap to Super Netball title

The Giants are confident of going one better and winning the Super Netball title this year.

Giants captain Kim Green missed last year’s finals through injury. Picture: Getty Images

The grand final of last year’s Super Netball season ended with a whimper rather than a bang as a rampant Sunshine Coast Lightning blasted the Giants 65-48. Both teams are playing in the finals this year, but in markedly different circumstances.

Giants captain Kim Green is excited to get on court after sitting out last year’s finals while she recovered from a knee injury.

“This year my hope was just to get through the season, so we’ve done that now. And now it’s finals time and it’s really exciting. This is why you play netball, this is why you put in all that hard work,” Green said.

The Giants finished the season on top of the table, and are favoured to take the title as they prepare to host the West Coast Fever at Sydney’s Quaycentre this afternoon, with a home grand final awaiting the winner.

Green can’t remember the last time she played on a team that won the minor premiership, but said the Giants didn’t fuss over the achievement and are hungry for more.

“We’ve had confidence throughout the year, but the one thing that’s different from last year is that we’ve figured out different ways of playing and being able to adapt them into our game which is not easy to do,” she said.

Giants coach Julie Fitzgerald has been pleased with the composure her players have demonstrated throughout the year as they ground out wins with a physical brand of netball.

She hopes the experiences from last year will stand her team in good stead.

“We went into the grand final last year and only two of our players had played in a grand final of any kind before. So to have that experience of last year behind us will hopefully be an advantage” Fitzgerald said.

This will be the 20th finals campaign for Fitzgerald since she became the inaugural coach of the Sydney Swifts in the Australian National League in 1997.

Even though it’s been decade since she last hoisted a trophy — with the Swifts — she’s not focused on breaking a personal drought, and laughed that she “just loves to win”.

The Giants are expecting a tight match even after comfortably dispatching the Fever only a week ago, but Green backed her side’s title credentials.

“We definitely want to win. I think we’ve got the game plan to win, I think we’ve got the confidence to win and I think we’ve got the players to win,” she said.

Tomorrow, the Lightning’s campaign to defend their title takes them to Brisbane, for a derby match against the Firebirds.

It’s been a long season for many of the Lightning’s players, who only had a week to recover from international duty at the Commonwealth Games. The team struggled out of the blocks, with three tight losses to start the year.

Lightning goal shooter and Diamonds captain Caitlin Bassett said those defeats “haunted (her) a little bit” so soon after Australia’s shock loss to England in the gold medal match.

“Every time it’s become close I do get a little bit stressed out,” Bassett said, adding that a second Super Netball title would “definitely” be sweeter this year.

The reigning champions won more quarters than other team this year, but only snatched fourth place on the ladder thanks to a draw and a win both earned with clutch shots from Bassett.

The Lightning are focused on building on the momentum gained after winning their last four matches.

“I’ve got a big match-up against (Firebirds defender) Laura Geitz … and there’s going to be a lot of focus on us in the goal circle. I’m looking forward to that challenge and I think that’s a good distraction for me rather than thinking about the outcome of the game,” Bassett said.