Super Netball 2022 West Coast Fever v Melbourne Vixens: All the latest grand final news
A challenging four-hour hike through the Australian Alps proved the catalyst for the Melbourne Vixens’ climb back to the Super Netball finals. Now the summit is within reach.
Melbourne Vixens’ ascension from Super Netball wooden spooners to premiership threats began with a climb in the Australian Alps, months before the first centre pass of the season.
The aptly named “Big Walk” is an 11km, grade 3 hike in the Mt Buffalo National Park just outside of Bright, in north-east Victoria.
Through eucalypt forests and waterfalls, past granite cliffs surrounded by towering snow gums, the entire playing group climbed 1000m over an 11km hike that chartered the rise they hoped to make this season.
When coach Simone McKinnis addresses her side ahead of the grand final at Perth’s RAC Arena, a photo of the Vixens at the top of the climb, will be pinned to the team’s whiteboard.
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GRAND FINAL ODDS AND EXPERT TIPS BELOW
Talk to any of the Vixens players and you will hear the phrase, “the Vixens way”.
Finishing at the bottom of the ladder is not the Vixens way and club was determined it would not happen again in 2022.
There were mitigating circumstances last year, of course.
Co-captain and Diamonds leader Liz Watson was forced off court for the entire season following surgery on a broken foot, while the retirement of former international shooters Caitlin Thwaites and Tegan Philip following the club’s 2020 premiership win left the Vixens with several young players in key positions.
The result was just two wins last year in a very un-Vixenlike performance.
The team was adamant it was not going to happen again.
With new recruits, Diamonds squad member Kiera Austin and former Fever defender Olivia Lewis in tow, the group went into camp at Bright and tackled a walk they hoped would be a symbol of the season to come.
“We started at the bottom, where we literally felt that we were, and we were metaphorically making our way to the top,” Watson said.
“We actually had our staff join us at the very end … and it was nice just to sit there, we’ve got photos from it.
“I think just having that team photo at the top with our staff as well, Simone has that photo up on our whiteboard, it’s just there (to remind us) this what we did, everyone knows it, we were all a part of it and it’s pretty cool.”
There’s no denying 2021 was a difficult year for the Vixens and the league.
Having spent all of 2020 in a hub in Queensland, officials were determined to attempt to play a home-and-away season but the continued Covid crisis and lockdowns in various states meant players were forced to outrun various shutdowns in a trying year.
“After the novelty of leaving the state for the first time in 2020 to be out of Victoria’s Covid crisis had worn off, I feel like there was a bit of fatigue in our planning group,” senior defender Jo Weston said.
“When you’re winning, it’s a little bit easier to cope with those challenges. So for us not to be getting the result on the scoreboard but then also having outside pressure - we were reigning premiers and there was a lot of talk about how it had been such a dramatic fall from the top - there’s a big learning curve.
“I think any person who plays in Victoria, you’re trained to have a winning mindset from when you’re really young, so it was a very unusual position for all of us to be in.
“But it was definitely a bonding experience. I feel like we could have gone either way and it could have fractured a few of our relationships and our dynamics on court but I really think we’ve been able to come full circle on it.”
Watson’s co-captain Kate Moloney said while last season’s disappointment could have affected the team, the belief they had in each other, the hard work they did and the standards they hold each other to, helped turn things around.
“We had that core group still from (when we won the premiership in) 2020 and I think that gives you belief knowing we were able to achieve that a couple of years earlier,” Moloney said.
“I think it’s also being a part of the Melbourne Vixens environment. We don’t accept much else than being right at the pointy end of the competition.
“It wasn’t a given that we were going to get back there. We worked extremely hard in the off-season.
“We brought some new players in, a few things changed but straight away from the Team Girls Cup tournament and then getting some early wins, we started to build some confidence within the group.
“It could have hurt us, what happened (last year) but it really did put a fire in your belly.”
When the Vixens look at that photo on Sunday, they know they’re about to embark on the final ascent.
No one is taking for granted the work that will have to be done to overcome the Fever in the final.
But if Watson and Moloney are able to hoist the trophy, it will be a moment of sheer joy given the journey.
“It would be everything I think,” Watson said.
“Personally, coming back from last year as well, it would just be awesome.
“I’ve loved the season so much. To do it with this team … it would be very special. With the big year that it’s been, it would be pretty amazing.”
Vixens fear: 13,000 roaring fans can’t be wrong, can they?
Grand final umpires Tara Warner and Jemma Cook are set to be under as much pressure as players in the Super Netball decider, with both teams readying themselves for a physical grand final.
The Vixens came in for plenty of attention in the major semi-final, losing the penalty count 74-47 as the Fever dominated the contest.
It was a lopsided count compared to the two fixture clashes between the team, where just nine penalties separated the teams over 120 minutes of play.
And in front of a roaring home crowd of more than 13,000, the experienced Warner and Cook will be under the pump from a green army desperate to see their team take out a maiden national league premiership.
Fever captain Courtney Bruce said both teams would throw everything into the crucial match.
“I think every game is physical these days, so we’re definitely expecting it,” Bruce said.
“We bring the physicality too, it’s a grand final and you want to win, so both teams will be going hard.”
The Vixens failed to slow the ball through the midcourt last time the teams met, with the Fever able to get quick, clean possession to shooter Jhaniele Fowler in the circle.
The 198cm Jamaican is almost unstoppable under the hoop and Warner and Cook will be under plenty of pressure from a full house at RAC Arena to blow the pea out of their whistles.
“Jhaniele takes a lot in the games, she’s a really strong body out there,” Bruce said.
“But I think like the beauty of our game this year has been that if ‘J’ (Fowler) is getting double teamed, we’ve got a Sasha (Glasgow) that can absolutely run into that circle and she can shoot from absolutely anywhere.
“And ‘J’ actually mixes up her games lot now, so she can get on the move and get that physicality off her.
“ She’s absolutely raring to go so I don’t I don’t think she’ll mind for 60 minutes if she gets pushed around a bit.”
Vixens co-captain Kate Moloney said there was physicality in any grand final.
“It’s that excitement, the pressure, just that want and will to go out there and win it and we’ll put everything on the line and hopefully it’s a really good spectacle for everyone that comes in and watches.”
Moloney’s co-captain Liz Watson has copped plenty of close tagging through the finals series, with both the Fever and Giants keeping the Diamonds captain quieter than usual.
“In that attacking end we just need to get that ball to our shooters,” Watson said, joking she just needed to lift her game despite the attention.
“I’ve reviewed the matches, we’ve had meetings in our units, team meetings, lots of things and I think it’s just playing — not overthinking it too much, just going out there and doing what I know I can do and enjoying it.”
The Vixens have claimed underdog status after their semi-final loss but Moloney said they were excited to play in front of such a big crowd.
“Credit to Fever in that major semi-final they played incredible netball.
“We were disappointed with our performance and I think they deserve the title as favourites going into this but we believe in our game plan and we think if we bring that type of netball, we can take it out to anyone.”
Both teams head into the decider at full strength, with Kiera Austin rejoining her teammates midweek after missing the preliminary final with Covid.
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