By Caitlin Greenwood
The NSW Swifts have clipped the wings of the Adelaide Thunderbirds with a commanding 65–57 victory at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre, silencing the reigning champions in front of a home crowd.
The Thunderbirds got off to a flyer, claiming the first turnover as Romelda Aiken-George put the first points on the board.
It was a milestone day for Aiken-George who with her 233rd match, surpassed English star Geva Mentor to become the most capped player in the ANZ Championship-Super Netball era.
Crucial mistakes from the Swifts saw their penalty count blow out as the Tbirds continued to dominate the first quarter to be up 18-11 heading into the break.
Swifts returned fire early in the second quarter, finding some momentum to go up. Down by three for the quarter, Tbirds coach Tania Obst called a tactical time out and injected Captain Hannah Petty.
Tania Obst made 18 changes throughout the matchThe Tbirds rallied to level for the quarter, but the introduction of Grace Whyte and a super shot from Helen Housby on the buzzer saw the Swifts go up by three and keep the Tbirds within four.
Teigan O’Shannassy started the second half with an absolute screamer of an intercept, to get her side off to the perfect start. Never far from the hunt, the defender claimed her third intercept within the first five minutes.
In a bid to break the Swifts momentum, Obst opted to made six changes during te tactical time out as Housby fired up during the power five. Despite their best efforts, the Tbirds struggled to break back into the match as the visitors led by five at the end of third.
O’Shannassy returned from the break exactly where she left off in third, grabbing her sixth clean intercept for the match as the Swifts powered on.
Kayla Graham stood up for the home side, sinking two super shots but with the errors continuing to creep in and back-to-back super shot misses from the Tbirds, the Swifts closed things out with an eight-point win.
