Super Netball finals 2023: Midcourt the key for Swifts in sudden-death preliminary final

Swifts leader Paige Hadley and her midcourt mates are ready to grind down the defending champions to ensure their passage to the Super Netball grand final.

Paige Hadley is ready to step up.

Literally and metaphorically, the Swifts leader is set to step forward and taking the load on her own shoulders in a bid to put her team into a third Super Netball grand final in five years.

Hadley, along with co-captain Maddy Proud and the underrated Taylor Fraser forms a Swifts midcourt that she knows will have to stand up if the minor premiers are to continue their season after Saturday night’s preliminary final against the West Coast Fever.

The Swifts lost an overtime thriller to the Adelaide Thunderbirds last weekend and could be forgiven for being a little gun shy heading into a sudden-death clash against the Fever, who were rated by most as premiership favourites heading into the 2023 season.

But Hadley sees it otherwise.

The leader of a team that missed the finals by a single goal last year and had to sit and watch on while others fought for the premiership, says the pressure of expectation is a privilege rather than a burden.

Swifts Head Coach Briony Akle talks to her players after their loss during the Super Netball Semi Final match between NSW Swifts and Adelaide Thunderbirds. Photo: Getty Images

It’s how the Swifts will tackle Saturday’s match in front of an expected crowd of about 10,000 at Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney, where, Proud said, her team is ready to “let it rip”.

But in a match full of international shooters and defenders, it could instead be the workaholic midcourts of both teams that determine the result.

Hadley says the game will not be won with a single flashy intercept, thrilling goal or moment of individual brilliance.

Instead, it will be a 60 minute grind with one team wearing the others down.

“There’s no doubt, absolutely the midcourt is where it’s going to be won,” Hadley said.

“It’s about the pressure that we can put on in that midcourt.

“It will come down to who can really be clinical that 60 minutes – put the pressure on defensively – because it’s not going to be won for us in the circle or by a clean intercept, it’s going to be coming from wayward passes or pressure, or hell balls, or the kind of things that we force to happen.”

Paige Hadley of the Swifts looks to pass during the Super Netball Semi Final match between NSW Swifts and Adelaide Thunderbirds. Photo: Getty Images

Hadley is adamant that will be the Swifts rather than the Fever, who will play who bring their signature physical style to the clash, especially having seen their rivals fail to cope with that well at times against Adelaide last week.

“There was definitely some obvious physicality in the contents but there was also a lot of physicality of the ball as well, even behind play and before play,” Hadley said.

“No doubt (the umpires) are going to watch that.

“For us, it’s about not letting that take away from what we’re trying to do. I think that did happen a little bit last week.

“It’s about putting in strategies (to deal with that) and knowing that that’s a compliment, that’s a privilege to be able to have that pressure put on to you.

“We know the way we play is fast ball movement, keeping the ball in our hands and obviously physicality can slow that down.

“It’s about getting off the body, using our skills and just letting it rip. I think once you see that out there, no one can stop us.”

On a huge weekend for netball in NSW, Hadley and her teammates will in action in front of some of the estimated 2500 players, 6000 spectators and 300 umpires gathered in Sydney for the junior state titles, while July marks the start of Woolworths NetSetGo month where a new generation of youngsters will engage with the sport for the first time.

Originally published as Super Netball finals 2023: Midcourt the key for Swifts in sudden-death preliminary final