Net Gains: Worries mount for Sunshine Coast Lightning and Giants as Mavericks find a way forward
The Melbourne Mavericks have their first Super Netball points and suddenly things are looking much brighter for the league’s newest team. EMMA GREENWOOD wraps up the weekend action.
Netball
Don't miss out on the headlines from Netball. Followed categories will be added to My News.
It’s hardly surprising to see the Melbourne Mavericks take their first Super Netball points given the way in which they attack their matches.
That crucial character is exactly why they were able to overcome the fancied Sunshine Coast Lightning in the frantic few seconds of their clash to notch their inaugural win.
Don’t expect the win to mean that the floodgates will open and victories come easily for the Mavericks.
But their never say die grit and refusal to concede a single result will mean they’re able to compete against the heavyweights of the competition.
Indeed, their first victory coming against the Lightning, who started the season as one of the most fancied sides in the league given their off-season recruiting drive, shows just how much work they have put into their culture to build foundations that will be rock solid in years to come.
It’s something coach Tracey Neville calls “wolf pack behaviours”.
While the Mavs tried hard and showed plenty of spark in the opening three rounds, especially for a side that had lost two players – or 20 per cent of its list – to season-ending injuries, there probably wasn’t that real desperation or ability to capitalise on moments and turn them into greater momentum.
“Over the last few weeks we’ve lost it at particular points of the game,” Neville said.
“There are still things we need to tidy up but what I was really pleased with (on Saturday) was the way that we changed and adapted when we made those mistakes – and that’s something that over the last three weeks we haven’t been able to do.
“You say you don’t deserve a performance but I think we worked really hard for that and we never let go until the final whistle which obviously got us that one-goal win.”
The key now is to capitalise on that result.
There are plenty of people hoping the Mavericks do well this season. Some might go to a game to check things out but few are yet rusted on fans.
Winning changes a lot though. The victory against the Lightning and the fact that Neville, Eleanor Cardwell and Maisie Nankivell – all former Thunderbirds – come up against their old club this week, should mean John Cain Arena is pumping on Saturday afternoon.
The spotlight will shift now to Cardwell and her recovery from an ankle injury picked up in the dying stages of Saturday’s game.
The Roses shooter pulled up well on Sunday morning but will head for scans on Monday to ensure there are no underlying issues.
Views through the roof
Super Netball has had a record-breaking start to the season, setting new viewership and attendance marks both in Australia and internationally for the benchmark competition.
More than 80,000 fans flocked to watch games live over the opening four rounds of competition, the best start to a season since the inception of Super Netball in 2017.
A record 20,802 fans attended round 1 games, a new milestone that confirmed anecdotal evidence of increased interest in the league following the introduction of new franchise the Melbourne Mavericks and significant player movement following last year’s drawn out pay war.
The average attendance across the first four rounds was over 20,000 - 4200 more per round than the average across the opening month in any previous Super Netball season.
Significant streaming audience increases have been recorded on Kayo Sports, Foxtel Go and Foxtel Now across the opening two rounds, making it the highest-streamed start to a season since Fox Sports took over the broadcast in 2022.
International fans have also showed their support for the competition, with Netball Pass subscribers already up 65 per cent on the entire 2023 season.
Netball Australia interim CEO Stacey West thanked fans, the Foxtel Group, venues and clubs for their support.
“It has been a hugely successful start to the Suncorp Super Netball season, a true testament to the commitment and athleticism of the incredible athletes who make up the competition,” West said.
Foxtel Group executive director - commercial sport Rebecca McCloy congratulated Netball Australia on the result.
“This is a testament not only to the strength of the competition but the incredible broadcast experience the team at Fox Sports deliver to audiences every week,” McCloy said.
Embrace the grassroots
Incoming Netball Australia director Liz Ellis’s priority to reverse the flow of money away from the grassroots of the game will be popular but it’s certainly no easy task.
As she outlined on Fox Netball’s Pivot program on Sunday, the grassroots game continues to prop up Super Netball financially, something that needs to change to ensure the long-term future of the sport at all levels.
“Trying to figure out how to make Super Netball profitable,” Ellis said when asked about her priorities as a board member, something she said she considered an enormous responsibility.
“At the moment it does get propped up from the grassroots, so I want to reverse the flow of money.
“Instead of money flowing up into Super Netball, I want money flowing back down the tree so that we can invest it in grassroots, in talent pathways, in umpires and in coaching.”
How that’s achieved though is the million-dollar question, although her other main priority – “making sure that we’ve got a world class digital platform through which to be able to communicate to the people who play the game” could be one of the solutions.
For one of the biggest sports in the country, the disconnect between the grassroots and the elite level is at-times staggering and building a bridge between the levels would not only drive viewership for Super Netball and Diamonds games but revenue for items such as ticketing and merchandise that could eventually have a trickle-down effect to the rest of the sport.
Can Lightning strike back?
What are we to make of the Lightning?
A dominant first-up win over the NSW Swifts had most thinking they were rolled gold premiership chances.
But then came a caning from the Fever in Perth, followed by an extra-time loss to the Thunderbirds and Saturday’s defeat by the Mavericks when they’d led for all but the final few seconds of the match.
Star recruit Liz Watson pointed out ahead of round 1 how important it was to get off to a good start considering there are only 14 regular-season matches and with a 1-3 record, the Lightning will need to bounce back quickly to remain in contention.
Granted, the final footwork call against Mahalia Cassidy on Saturday seemed a bit tough given she’d stepped on a rival’s foot and rolled her ankle while on possession.
But the Lightning shouldn’t have been in that position.
There have been stellar individual efforts – Watson’s 30 goal assists and 48 feeds from Saturday is an enormous workload while Cara Koenen shot at almost 98 per cent and continues to be a massive threat in the circle – but they have not always come at once.
You’d back them to rebound but it’s going to be a big effort to make the top four from here.
Saturday’s clash against the Giants shapes as a major game for two teams struggling to get runs on the board.
Giant struggles must be addressed
The Giants are in all sorts of trouble at 0-4 and desperately searching for ways to get their season going.
They are desperately missing key playmaker Maddie Hay, who has had off-season surgery, but there are some big questions ahead for the club around personnel.
As Bianca Chatfield noted in her CODE Sports column last week, co-captain Jo Harten’s role must come under the microscope if the Giants continue to struggle.
Harten played just under three-quarters of the game against the Thunderbirds, shooting at what, for her, is a sub par 67 per cent overall.
Keeping her in the game is understandable given her record for the club – and over the past decade under Fitzgerald in Australia and New Zealand.
But with an outstanding young option on the bench in Matisse Letherbarrow, who shot at 100 per cent when she came on, it’s becoming harder and harder to justify her massive chunks of time on court.
Harten, whose future is probably as a high performance coach herself, is an important voice in the team, while she feels her best after a tough couple of years struggling with injury.
There are going to have to be some very tough and honest conversations at some stage if the skipper fails to turn things around.
Even best can wilt
It’s not always beer and skittles though, even for the best players in the world.
Swifts goaler Helen Housby is arguably wearing that tag at the moment but she had a shocker by her standards, in her team’s loss to West Coast Fever on Sunday.
Housby was kept to just three goals but missed all four of her super shot attempts, her usually reliable radar off kilter as she was swamped by Diamond Sunday Aryang in an incredible defensive effort.
Aryang has stepped up as a defensive leader at the Fever since the departure of Courtney Bruce and is leading the way as the unit gels with the introduction of Kadie-Ann Dehaney and Fran Williams.
Fever, Vixens heading for showdown
The Fever and Vixens added wins on Sunday to remain the only unbeaten sides in the league and their meeting in the final match of the round is shaping as one of the most anticipated matches of the season.
These two clubs have developed a massive rivalry over the years – something that has grown further in the past few seasons as they tackled each other in grand finals in 2020 and 2022 for one title apiece.
It’s way too early to make that call for 2024 but circle May 26 on the calendar. Not only do the pair play, at Perth’s RAC Arena, it’s the final game on the first round and there will be a decent snapshot of where the entire competition stands.
More Coverage
Originally published as Net Gains: Worries mount for Sunshine Coast Lightning and Giants as Mavericks find a way forward
Mavs make Uneeq signing as part of stacked training roster
A roster that underlines the depth of Super Netball and the difficulty of snaring a full-time contract, or a nervy move by a club unprepared to back new talent? The verdict on the Mavericks’ stacked training roster.
NRL and AFL stars’ secret code switch pleas for LA Olympics
With eyes set on a rare chance at Olympic gold, stars from AFL, NRL, Super Rugby and Super Netball have been making secret queries over the prospect of surprise code switches.