Super Netball: Mid-season report card – what your team needs to do to make the finals

Expectations weren’t high in Queensland after the loss of Gretel Bueta among many others, but have the Firebirds surpassed them? Check out our mid-season report card on every team.

Seven rounds into the Super Netball season, we’ve officially reached the halfway point, with every team having played each other once.

And just as coaches do at halftime in a match, it’s time to reassess, look at what we’ve learnt so far and assess what’s needed for the second half.

Who can make the finals and who should start planning for 2024 now?

We grade every team and analyse what they need to do to make improvements in the back end of the season.

Super Netball: Mid-season report card

West Coast Fever

2022 finish: Premiers

Current position: 1st

Grade: B+

Seems a bit tough to have the defending premiers and competition favourites sitting on a B given they have lost just one game since Round 12 last year. But the Fever haven’t been entirely convincing this season. They opened the year with single goal wins over the Vixens and Giants, held off the fast-finishing Firebirds in round 5 before going down to the Thunderbirds by a goal in a round 6 belter.

Dan Ryan’s team has enormous depth and talent and there are individuals standing out every week with their performances. Alice Teague-Neeld has been outstanding, Sasha Glasgow had to be unlucky not to make the Diamonds squad and Kim Jenner has been a great addition to the defensive unit, while Jhaniele Fowler and Courtney Bruce continue to dominate in their positions. But as a unit, they’re humming along quietly rather than motoring and will want to kick up a gear heading into the finals.

Shamera Sterling of the Thunderbirds celebrates with her teammates. Picture: Getty Images

Adelaide Thunderbirds

2022 finish: 7th

Current position: 2nd

Grade: A

While the Thunderbirds sit two points behind the Fever on the competition ladder, they too have suffered just one loss this season – an upset at the hands of the Giants in Round 4 – with points split with the Swifts in round 2 when their game was controversially abandoned.

The T-Birds were always regarded as a threat this season after the addition of England goaler Eleanor Cardwell and their performance at the pre-season Team Girls Cup. But they have promised much in recent years and failed to deliver.

The signs are there though that the club’s decade-long wait to return to the playoffs could be over given they sit 10 points clear of fifth and were the only team to beat the Fever in the opening round. The form and ultra-competitive nature of Cardwell, ability of Jamaican defenders LaTanya Wilson and Shamera Sterling and Sterling’s emergence as a leader are great signs but it will be the ability of the local players – the likes of new Diamond Matilda Garrett, shooters Tippah Dwan and Lucy Austin and midcourters Georgie Horjus, Hannah Petty and Tayla Williams – to respond to pressure at the business end of the season that will tell whether this team can write themselves into the history books.

Romelda Aiken-George of the Swifts. Picture: Getty Images

NSW Swifts

2022 finish: 5th

Current position: 3rd

Grade: B

The Swifts were expected to struggle again early in the season while star goaler Sam Wallace continued her recovery from a knee reconstruction, even with the addition of former Firebirds shooter Romelda Aiken George to their ranks. After starting the season with a stinker against the Magpies, the Swifts were level with the Thunderbirds when their round 2 match was abandoned at halftime and the points split and they broke through the following week for their first win of the season – a three-goal victory against the Firebirds.

While not setting the world on fire, the thing the Swifts are good at – and that could define their season – is grinding out games and in winning the last three matches of the round, by a combined margin of five goals, they find themselves in third place at the halfway point.

With a vastly experienced team across the court and selfless role players, the Swifts have the ability to make their mark in this competition. The key will be when – and if – Wallace is reintroduced and how long it takes her to find her feet after not playing since round 1 last year.

Kate Moloney of the Vixens. Picture: Getty Images

Melbourne Vixens

2022 finish: Minor premiers, runners-up

Current position: 4th

Grade: B-

Despite losing their opening match of the season, the Vixens made a statement in the grand final replay, going down by just a goal in the west without veteran defender Jo Weston available. It seemed to point to a return to form for Simone McKinnis’s side, which had stewed over the hurt of its grand final loss since last July. But every two steps forward for the Vixens this season seems to have been accompanied by one back as they scrap for every competition point and result.

The absence of the injured Rahni Samason has been a blow and while Mwai Kumwenda remains reliable as ever and Diamond Kiera Austin’s workrate in front of the circle – in both attack and defence – is enormous, her return will be a shot in the arm. Yet to hit their straps for a consistent 60 minutes per game, the Vixens will be looking for improvements across the board in the second round and this weekend’s clash with the Fever in Melbourne will tell plenty about their season.

Stephanie Wood of the Lightning. Picture: Getty Images

Sunshine Coast Lightning

2022 finish: 8th

Current position: 5th

Grade: B

The Lightning finished with the wooden spoon last year – the first season the proud club had missed the finals – and were always going to bounce back with the quality of their personnel and return of international defender Karla Pretorius from maternity leave. While they’ve had a horror injury run, with both Tara Hinchliffe and Shannon Eagland suffering knee injuries, they remain a threat, with their best netball challenging any team in the competition.

Finding that form consistently is their biggest challenge though, with the gaps between their best and worst moments cruelling their performance. But they are responding to new coach Belinda Reynolds With internationals at each end, it will be the Lightning midcourt that determines how far they progress in the competition – and with players like Annie Miller making strides each week, they will not be giving up on a return to the four any time soon.

Sophie Dwyer of the Giants. Picture: Getty Images

Giants Netball

2022 finish: 3rd

Current position: 6th

Grade: C+

The mercurial Giants have had some of the best results in the competition this season. They lost by a single goal to the Fever in round 2 and are the only team so far to have beaten Adelaide – something they achieved on the T-Birds’ home court. But that was one of just two wins they managed in the first round and they suffered losses to the two clubs below them on the competition ladder.

With no changes to their list, the Giants were widely expected to thrive, having finished just one goal away from the grand final last season. But with talismanic captain Jo Harten missing the first game of the season – her first absence ever in Super Netball – and nursing herself back from knee surgery just 15 weeks ago, the Giants have come up just short at times in the first round. On a jammed competition ladder, they remain just two wins outside the four and can’t be completely counted out.

But they need to find another level – in penalty-free defence in particular – if they are to win their way through the second round to the playoffs.

Ash Brazill of the Magpies. Picture: Getty Images

Collingwood Magpies

2022 finish: 4th

Current position: 7th

Grade: C-

The Magpies scraped into the finals last year and while they did not progress past the knockout round, there was much optimism ahead of the 2023 season given they made just one change to their squad. They could be sitting in equal fourth place on the ladder if not for the centre pass fiasco that led to their one-point loss to the Vixens in round 2. Instead, they are languishing in seventh with just two wins due mostly to their own inconsistency and slow starts.

While it could be seen as a negative, it’s also a relatively easy fix and they remain just two wins out of the four and will take confidence from the charge home that led them to the finals last year. With defender Jodie-Ann Ward in career best form, Geva Mentor injury free and Ash Brazill determined to push her side to the playoffs in her last year in Super Netball, the Magpies remain a threat.

They need to sort out clear roles on the shooting end though, with Diamonds goaler Sophie Garbin’s confidence clearly waning as she attempts to find her way at goal attack.

Mia Stower of the Firebirds. Picture: Getty Images

Queensland Firebirds

2022 finish: 6th

Current position: 8th

Grade: C

Things were always going to be tough for Bec Bulley’s team this year after the exodus of defensive players last season, followed by the hammer blow that Gretel Bueta (pregnancy) would not play and a coaching reshuffle just a week before the start of the season. Most expected them to be exactly where they are now – rooted to the bottom of the ladder.

But there are positive signs at Nissan Arena. While some predicted they wouldn’t win a game this season, they beat the fancied Giants in round 6 a week after giving defending premiers the Fever a scare with a Donnell Wallam-inspired fightback.

Wallam has stepped up magnificently in the absence of Bueta but needs scoring support if she is to beat the double teams that will continue to come her way in the second round. The positive signs for the Firebirds though come in the improvements to their newest players. Defender Remi Kamo may have been a late bloomer but is making the most of her chance at this level, rising to the challenge against the best goalers in the world. Bulley’s own growth and her decision to mix up the established order is also paying dividends, with the likes of Macy Gardner, Ash Unie and Emily Moore responding to the faith the coach is putting in them.

They’re still wooden spoon favourites, but the Firebirds are a lot better than most thought and they’ll define other teams’ seasons in the second round.

Originally published as Super Netball: Mid-season report card – what your team needs to do to make the finals