Every Saturday morning in winter, netball competitions across Australia begin when the dew is still wet and the sun has barely peeked above the horizon. Takeaway-coffee-cup-clasping parents exhale frosty breath as they watch their littlies, battling billowing bibs, take the court.
As the day unfolds and the mercury creeps up, the players get older, taller and more dexterous, the shooters more accurate and the defenders more rugged. Then in the early afternoon sun, the A graders play the marquee game: the match everyone wants to see and that will be talked about until the following Saturday.
In an instant, the level of athleticism, physicality and skill spikes, the speed accelerates and the whistle blasts far less. Coast to coast, A grade is undeniably the premier competition, so the contrast with what comes before is rightly stark.
It’s like going from analogue to high-definition TV. From drinking tepid light beer to champagne.
And that’s precisely what it felt like in the second-last home and away round of Super Netball on the weekend, when one of the ugliest games of the 2019 season – a messy, error-riddled win by the Giants over the Thunderbirds in Adelaide on Sunday – was immediately followed by arguably the finest this year, a heart-stopper between the Melbourne Vixens and Sunshine Coast Lightning.
Noeline Taurua’s charges clawed back a 10-goal deficit to claim a stunning 56-55 win in the very last second at Melbourne Arena. It came thanks to an advanced penalty for a deliberate infringement by Vixens’ veteran Renae Ingles and a cool-as-a-cucumber conversion from Lightning shooter Steph Wood, who had earlier been benched.
The one-goal game – the closest across a round which also saw Collingwood defeat the NSW Swifts by eight goals on Saturday, but lose Kelsey Browne to what has been confirmed as a season-ending ACL injury, and the Queensland Firebirds get their first win of the year – was everything Super Netball should be: well-coached, clean, clinical and utterly captivating.
Spectacular skill - not brute force – prevailed, time-outs were tactical not premeditated and contests were tight across the court. The umpires, despite having a hand in the dying moment, didn’t dominate the match or hand out countless cautions, as has been routine this season.
The battle between the reigning back-to-back premiers and Simone McKinnis’s no-nonsense Vixens had enthralling one-on-one contests (see Karla Pretorius on Tegan Philip), tactical switches (Ingles defending Kiwi legend Laura Langman in Lightning’s attacking third), a clean block on a shot (Phumza Maweni in the second quarter), end-to-end gut running (Kate Moloney, all day) and just-enough defensive grunt and exasperation (hello Jo Weston) to keep fans fixated for 60 minutes.
Unlike the clumsy ball delivery, miscommunication and inter-team frustration on display in Adelaide, where young Thunderbird shooters Sasha Glasgow and Emma Ryde both went down with what looked like serious knee injuries, the game in Victoria had standout individual performances from some of the best players on the globe.
Australian Diamond and Vixens’ wing attack Liz Watson dominated, finishing the match as the most prolific feeder this round, with an extraordinary 45 feeds and 28 goal assists, which earned her the MVP award. The game also featured one of the weekend’s most accurate shooters, Ugandan Peace Proscovia, who sunk 33 from 34 for 97% accuracy, in just over three quarters on court.
Proscovia, who replaced young Australian Cara Koenen at goal shooter with a few minutes left in the first quarter, was only bettered by flashy Firebird Gretel Tippett, who scored 30/30 in her side’s six-goal win over West Coast in Perth on Sunday night. The Fever desperately missed their captain Courtney Bruce, who pulled out late with a respiratory complaint and looks set to miss her side’s last game next weekend against the Giants.
After weeks of controversy about umpiring, the match in Melbourne had the least number of penalties of the round, just 85 in total: the only sub-100 count for the weekend. The figure was just under 30 percent less than what was blown in the “most whistled” match, between the Firebirds and Fever, which had 117 penalties.
The contest between the two premiership aspirants also saw 11 intercepts split between seven players, with only Karla Pretorius dominating that stat, pulling in five. And while there were eight more intercepts in the Giants game, they meant less as both sides struggled to capitalise.
It’s no surprise that the Melbourne blockbuster featured the equal-most number of imports this round and was a showcase for why the unlimited import rule has seen Super Netball become the sport’s premier league.
What it didn’t dispel, however, are growing concerns about the gap between the competition’s best and worst sides, which was on full technicolour display. Collectively, the bottom four sides have managed to win just 12 games this season, from a possible 52, while the top four have taken 34 wins. It’s a gap that should worry the game’s bosses.
One thing Super Netball doesn’t have to worry about is the rivalry between the Lightning and the Vixens, which was already fierce before Sunday. It’s now edging towards epic and if the two sides end up in the grand final come 15 September, it might be one for the ages.
