Super Netball finals 2023: Jhaniele Fowler to play game 150 in West Coach Fever v NSW Swifts preliminary final
West Coast Fever coach Day Ryan has fired a warning shot to the rest of the league, admitting that we still haven’t seen the full potential of the world’s best goal shooter, Jhaniele Fowler.
She’s already the best goal shooter in the world but Jhaniele Fowler’s blinkered determination that she still has room for improvement is what’s keeping her at the top of her game.
West Coast goaler Fowler will play her 150th national league game on Saturday when the Fever take on minor premiers NSW Swifts in the Super Netball preliminary final in Sydney.
The Fever played an outstanding game to overcome the Melbourne Vixens in last week’s knockout final, led by supreme efforts from bookends Courtney Bruce - who was outstanding at goalkeeper - and shooter Fowler, who sank 55 of her 57 attempts in her side’s 64-57 victory.
If the defending champions are to get over the Swifts, it’s likely to take another supreme effort from Fowler, who, as in the previous 149 games she has played, will be a major target of the opposition defence.
But coach Day Ryan sees no complacency in the Jamaican’s game.
“Jhaniele is the best in the world for a reason,” Ryan said.
“It’s the fact she simply wants to get better every single week. I love coaching her.
“There’s always room for improvement , in her opinion, in her game and the versatility and growth she’s had this year in her game has been really exciting.
“When you’re so good at what you do, it’s easy to be complacent and think that’s where your ceiling is but you know Jhaniele Fowler, she always wants more, she’s always working on the little things and the way I’ve seen her just engage and enhance the ones around her this season has been awesome.
“Jhaniele is the best in the world but I guarantee, Jhaniele can get better.”
Fowler, who became the first player in the seven-year history of Super Netball to reach 5000 goals in the Fever’s win against the Sunshine Coast Lightning earlier this month, said it meant a lot to be playing her 150th match.
Fowler made her debut in the former ANZ Championship in 2013, playing for the Invercargill-based Southern Steel, before joining the Fever in 2018 to play in Super Netball after the Australian and New Zealand competitions split.
“To have played 149 games so far is just an amazing thing and to be playing (my 150th) with the West Coast Fever this weekend is just the icing on the cake,” she said.
Just as she is not content with her personal standing though, Fowler wants more for the Fever too, with the defending champions determined to push on to another grand final.
“What makes us hungry is the fact that we want to go even further, we want to get to the grand final and just playing together as a team and making sure that we’re going for the win makes us hungry,” she said.
The game won’t be easy, with Fowler expecting the Swifts - who boast Diamonds goalkeeper Sarah Klau and former Diamonds squad member Maddy Turner in their defensive circle - to “throw everything they have at us”.
But Ryan believes little will stop his gun goaler.
“I thought what she produced at the weekend against the Vixens was one of her best performances of the season and she was absolutely unbreakable for us in the that goal circle,” Ryan said.
“‘J’ is a big-time player, she loves the big occasions and she’s tracking really well for us.”
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