Super Netball: Perth glows green as Fever host Lightning in grand final

Perth is lit up in green as West Coast Fever prepare to host a grand final against Sunshine Coast Lightning.

West Coast Fever’s Verity Charles faces a grand final test against a fast Lightning midcourt unit. Picture: AAP

Perth is a city normally painted in the blue and yellow of the AFL’s West Coast Eagles as winter draws to a close, but for the first time, its landmarks have been lit up in green as West Coast Fever prepare to host a grand final against Sunshine Coast Lightning at Perth Arena tomorrow afternoon.

It’s been a remarkable transformation for a team that two weeks ago won its first final in 22 years. The breakthrough has been a long time coming for head coach Stacey Marinkovich.

She was the Fever’s inaugural captain in 2008, and has spent seven years coaching the team in a variety of roles.

Marinkovich and team executive Tamara Sheppard together crafted a plan to shake the inferiority complex that had plagued the state’s netball teams for decades. It’s been only in the past 18 months that things have finally started to change.

“When you see the players in the room having such self-confidence, that belief in each other and that trust, the culture that’s been built, that’s the part where you say ‘we’ve made a difference’,” Marinkovich said.

While the Lightning have stuck to a businesslike approach this week, Marinkovich has encouraged her players to “embrace the moment”.

“Grand final week, (doesn’t) come around regularly. I think if you try and subdue all the emotions early it can catch up with you on game day,” she said.

Victory for either team will require an element of treachery. Lightning goal shooter Caitlin Bassett is the best player Western Australia has produced in a generation, and spent the first 12 years of her career in Perth before moving east.

On the other hand, Marinkovich is a born and bred Queenslander who now considers herself West Australian by naturalisation after 16 years in Perth.

A sold-out Perth Arena is expected to break Australia’s club netball crowd record of 13,314.

The teams are remarkably even; a single goal separated them in their two matches this year, both won by the Fever.

Both field elite holding shooters in Jhaniele Fowler and Bassett, supported by rangy attacks. Two defensive circles stacked with international talent win plenty of ball and set the tone physically.

The Fever are relatively lacking in grand final experience in comparison to the Lightning, the defending champions.

When centre Verity Charles grabbed her knee in the dying moments of the Fever’s round 14 loss to the Giants, the Perth side had seemingly lost a veteran on the eve of the finals.

Charles, after a collision with Giants’ wing attack Kim Green, felt her season was over.

“This time last year I was in recovery after surgery on that same knee,” Charles said. “It was ticking all the ACL boxes: a massive crack, a shooting pain that stopped in a couple of minutes. Once my physio did the ACL test, he thought it was gone.”

But scans cleared her of any damage and she played a key part in the Fever’s semi-final win over the Giants six days later.

That knee will get a big test tomorrow. The Lightning have a small, speedy midcourt that can wear opponents down with explosive work on and off the ball. Charles, though, is looking forward to playing after “dodging the biggest bullet”.