Jhaniele Fowler is the most dominant player in Super Netball History and arguably the greatest athlete to play in the Australian and New Zealand national leagues.
On Wednesday night she was awarded her fourth consecutive Super Netball Most Valuable Player award, her seventh MVP since moving from Jamaica to play in the trans-Tasman leagues in 2013.
Since joining the West Coast Fever in 2017, she has been the club talisman, the player every team needs to plan for, and Fever’s number one avenue to wins.
But in 2021, the blueprints of what a successful Fever side beyond Fowler might look like began to emerge, and it starts down the other end of the court.
Captain Courtney Bruce has long been a stalwart in defence for the Fever and English international Stacey Francis-Bayman continues to be elite at all three defensive positions. But the emergence of 20-year-old Sunday Aryang seemed to take this group from a “can we hold on to this lead?” squad to a combination ready to ruin opposition gameplans.
Bruce, who was named the 2021 Liz Ellis Diamond at the Australian Netball Awards, led the league in deflections (97), gains (97) and defensive rebounds (26) and only Shamera Sterling could best her intercept total, with the Adelaide GK pulling in just one more than Courtney’s 48.
As a defensive trio, Bruce, Aryang and Francis-Bayman led all other defensive groups with 180 total deflections, 82 intercepts and 168 combined gains. They are gigantic defensive numbers, particularly for a team that also averaged 69.5 total points scored per game, and leaves no doubt why Bruce and Aryang were selected to start in the 2021 Suncorp Super Netball Team of the Year.
Origin Australian Diamonds Head Coach, and outgoing Fever boss, Stacey Marinkovich thinks new Head Coach Dan Ryan should be very excited about the future of West Coast’s defence.
“I think they’ve expanded the depth and versatility that they can have, particularly with the movement of Courtney across positions, and I think that that is something that will continue to challenge oppositions.”
That expansion of depth Marinkovich mentioned comes in the form of the Fever’s sole offseason recruit - Rudi Ellis.
Despite never locking down a starting spot during her time at the Melbourne Vixens and Queensland Firebirds, the rangy defender impressed last season when she was called upon to cover for the injured Tara Hinchliffe.
The addition of Ellis means the Fever not only boast one of the deepest and most talented defensive groups in the league, they also have no shortage of combinations to roll out to solve opposition attack ends.
But, as we all know, having a talented group and nailing when to roll out the right combinations is one of the hardest things a coach has to do.
“Finding the balance of when to make those moves and which combinations work best in what situation will be key for Dan and his team.” Marinkovich admitted when running through the Fever list.
“But I think they’ll really enjoy working on that in the preseason and discovering what this diverse group can bring to every situation thrown at them.”
While Ryan will have plenty of options, there is no doubting that the crowning jewels of this exciting defensive unit is Courtney Bruce and Sunday Aryang and it’s their uncanny ability to read the play and self confidence that set them apart from other combinations across the league.
“They are both defenders who sight the ball and read the play in advance.” Marinkovich said when asked about their combination.
“They are two players that can play on the body at an elite level when they need to play a shutdown role but they are also both clean ball getters as well.
“Both of them love to get intercepts off their own back, which is so exciting. There were times during the 2021 Fever season where you would see them taking intercepts off each other because of their sight and understanding of the game.”
Off the back of their high-octane offence, the Fever have been one of the most successful teams in the Suncorp Super Netball era.
But, with an exciting and dynamic defensive core coming through, are we on the cusp of West Coast defensive dominance?
