Super Netball’s annus horribilis – a condensed, compromised season littered with controversy and conflict – concludes this weekend with what shapes as a classic game of inches. It promises to be a grand final most likely to be won through assiduity, not flashes of individual brilliance.
Sunday’s denouement in Brisbane sees the Melbourne Vixens, who lost just two games all season and breezed through a major semi against the Sunshine Coast Lightning, take on the West Coast Fever, comfortable victors over the NSW Swifts in last weekend’s preliminary.
A tight contest between inarguably the two best sides this year would be a brilliant burst of colour in what has been in many ways a grim season.
Despite the relative triumph of even having a competition, care of a last-minute hub deal with the Queensland government, 2020 remains a year Super Netball bosses will most likely want to forget.
Player and public anger over late rule changes, a send-off which raised questions about the need for an appeal process, a racism row in Indigenous round, a fan spitting at a player on a Brisbane street and the national captain heading off to New Zealand after a fall-out with her domestic club have all contributed to a season like no other.
But come Sunday, the grinding graft of no-nonsense netball both teams play will take the spotlight.
With dozens of storylines, four star imports and seven Diamonds squad members across the sides, a fierce oncourt contest is a lock.
Off it, there will also be an intriguing battle between new Australia coach Stacey Marinkovich, who heads the Fever, and the woman many believe should have got the job, Simone McKinnis of the Vixens.
Many of the critiques of Marinkovich’s appointment are tied to her lack of elite coaching success; victory on Sunday would help dismiss some of them.
If her team, who lost the final in 2018, were to triumph it would be Western Australia’s first piece of elite netball silverware. For the Victorians, in the title decider for the first time, it would be a powerful pick-me-up for a state traumatised by coronavirus lockdowns.
The Vixens and Fever met twice in a season which saw them leave home in a rush in late June, with no idea of when they were to return. In mid-August, coming off their first loss, the Melburnians won by nine goals after a blistering 21-14 opening quarter. MVP Tegan Philip scored 10/10, including two “supers” in the first, and went on to finish with 27/30 at 90%.
The fact Fever and national keeper Courtney Bruce, who struggled with a back injury in the early rounds, sat out the first stanza was key, especially given her form trajectory since. Fever’s inability to find an effective goal attack also hurt, with Alice Teague-Neeld, Kaylia Stanton and Emma Cosh all rotated through the position.
In the return fixture just 19 days later, a full-strength Fever, with a more settled Teague-Neeld at GA, looked in control at half-time, up 36-29. But the Vixens, missing injured keeper Emily Mannix, won the last two quarters and snatched a 63-all draw thanks mainly to “supers” from retiring shooter Caitlin Thwaites, who ate up the pressure. As is often the case, the draw felt distinctly like a victory to the chaser.
Those results give the Vixens faith they can win the premiership, according to goal defence Jo Weston. “Are we confident? Confident is a weird word, isn’t it? I talk about us having faith. We know we’ve got enough capabilities within our whole team to get us over the edge,” Weston said.
Weston also understands she has a different type of job on her hands with Teague-Neeld, who can shoot from distance, but effectively acts as a third feeder to league top scorer Jhaniele Fowler. She is also susceptible to held balls, the second-most penalised in the league for that error.
“Alice is one of their main ball handlers, so our defence all over the court has to be top notch. Personally, I need to adapt to what’s happening on the court. We have a variety of different defensive strategies to cope with Jhaniele, who is just such a strong target,” Weston said.
First-year Vixen Kate Eddy, who has been a lynchpin at wing defence and occasionally switched bibs with Weston, is central to that effort. She is in a race to get back from a foot injury.
Fowler – who has shot 910 goals in 16 matches at 94% – does not mind which defensive combination the Vixens go with. “I know they’re going to throw things at me. That [means] I’ll have to have to hold my end up, but I’m pretty confident. I’m in good stead to take on the Vixens’ defence,” she said.
With almost every one-on-one contest across the court a lineball call, it may come down to one fingernail deflection on a pass into Fowler that decides it all. It will depend who does the little things right all day long.
