By Paddy Regester
Given the amount of talent and the fact that there is just eight teams in this competition, I truly believe each club is just a few good decisions and a lucky bounce away from a premiership run.
So, using this theory, I decided to pick one thing that I think each team needs to do/find/change/whatever in order to be successful in 2021.
Positivity is key here. Let’s go out there and get better.
Collingwood Magpies – Clean up your act
Now, look, if “keys to success” were literal keys, then the Magpies’ keychain would look like it belongs to a jail warden. But you have to start somewhere.
My suggestion for a good place to start; get those penalties down.
The Magpies committed a league high 54.3 contact and obstruction penalties per game (760 total) in 2020, with Geva Mentor and Jodi-Ann Ward leading the way with 182 and 180, respectively.
Having one of your players standing beside their opponent almost 55 times per game is no good, particularly when almost half of those times is happening in your defensive third.
There are a lot of things that need to happen for the Magpies to be successful in 2021, like getting their points per game average of 55 closer to the league average of 61 or keeping that starting seven healthy, but cleaning up their defensive game is where they should start.
Sunshine Coast Lightning – Sort out first half scoring
Very tempting to put “Ease into post-Laura Langman life” here but I’ve gone with one that I think is a little more juicy.
One of the many oddities from the 2020 season was the Lightning’s slow starts.
They spent the majority of second halves playing from behind after taking deficits into the halftime break in 10 of the 16 games they played.
On six of those ten occasions, they were never able to dig themselves out of that first half hole and on four occasions that hole was atleast 14 points deep!
It was a pretty concerning trend and one that Head Coach Kylee Byrne would love to chalk up to “2020, gross”.
Getting settled into a match early and keeping those volunteers on the scorers desk busy in the first half of every game is my number one key to success for the Lightning.
GIANTS Netball – Block out the noise
Whether it was goal shooters preparing for the Tour de France on the sidelines or goal defenders getting told to hit the showers early by the umpires, 2020 was a bit of a tumultuous season for the GIANTS.
A lot of it was out of their hands or blown up in the media, but I think it’s time for the GIANTS to put their heads down and get back to playing finals netball.
The squad is ready to go.
Jo Harten and Kiera Austin represent one of the more difficult to defend attack ends and Sophie Dwyer has impressed the club enough to earn her first big contract. Jamie-Lee Price and Amy Parmenter are stars and Maddie Hay showed glimpses of the great player she could become last season. There are question marks in the defensive end, but the ceiling is higher for them than they showed last season.
If they can tune out the noise, this club has the potential to do some serious damage in 2021. I’m backing them to be playing meaningful netball in August this year.
Adelaide Thunderbirds – Just score
Nothing fancy here, just plain old putting the ball in through the hoop.
Ever since the Suncorp Super Netball began back in 2017, the Adelaide Thunderbirds have ended the season at the bottom of the points scored list.
They cannot extend that streak to five straight seasons. They cannot!
Head Coach Tania Obst and the Thunderbirds midcourt needs to find a way to get the ball in the hands of their super talented shooters, who attempted just 846 shots last season, more often.
Lenize Potgieter is a big stage goal scorer who should be averaging 40 shots a game and Georgie Horjus should develop into a Super Shot assassin, ripping opposition hearts out in the closing minutes of every quarter.
In the end, who cares who’s putting them up and in. If the scoreboard reads “Adelaide Thunderbirds – 60 points” more often, I think netball fans in the City of Churches will be praising whichever deity is listening.
Melbourne Vixens – Find 545
Excuse the cryptic title, but I thought writing “replace two of the club’s all-time-greats” was a little lazy and not necessarily achievable.
After taking her time recovering from a serious knee injury suffered in 2018, Mwai Kumwenda exploded for the eventual Premiers in 2020.
She led the team in scoring, hit big shots when it mattered most and was eventually named the Grand Final MVP following her incredible performance in the big dance.
But the best thing about this Vixens attack end was that, with the now retired Thwaites and Philip alongside Kumwenda, it could hurt you in a lot of different ways. So how do you replace the 545-points that are now cheering on from home?
I’m no expert, but setting out to straight-up replace two of the best to ever do it wouldn’t be the way I’d go. Those two combined for 545 points in 2020, so where do they come from in 2021?
Do they lean on MJ and transform her from a 400-point a season player to a 600+ scoring machine? Are they confident a change of scenery for former Fever shooter Kaylia Stanton will help her reach her potential? Or is elevated training partner Ruby Barkmeyer the next great Vixens scorer?
West Coast Fever – Get off to a hot start
Hey, I completely agree that this is a pretty sane key to success for all eight teams.
But let’s be real here, the sooner the Fever get out of the negatives for premiership points, the sooner the team can set its sights on fighting for a place in the top four this season.
As we know, the Fever will begin the season with -12 premiership points as result of their salary cap breach, so overcoming that is priority one for the club.
Picture this…
Round one, sweet redemption against the Vixens in the Grand Final rematch brings them to -8. Move to -4 by taking care of the always tough Swifts at home in round two. Then get right back in the mix after a massive road win against the Lightning in round three.
It’s not where they’d like to be following a 3-0 clean sweep of the 2020 top four but it’s what needs to be done, because wallowing in the negatives for too long will get old really quick.
Queensland Firebirds – Nail the shooting setup
One of the most exciting storylines of the 2020 season was the emergence of Tippah Dwan for the Firebirds.
Coming into 2020, things were looking grim for the Firebirds. They had just come off the clubs first wooden spoon in well over a decade, Gretel Bueta had announced that she would be sitting out the year as she prepared to become Momma B and there were question marks at key positions across the court.
One of those question marks was how could this team possibly survive without its best player and the reigning Liz Ellis Diamond winner in Bueta?
The answer came in the form of a rejuvenated Romelda Aiken and the brilliant play of one of Australia’s most exciting shooting talents, Tippah Dwan.
Now, with Bueta set to make her return, the challenge for new Head Coach Megan Anderson will be making sure the right shooting combination is on at the right time to make the biggest impact on the game.
Remember before the 2019 Super Netball season when the GIANTS brought in Caitlin Bassett, creating the seemingly undefendable shooting trio of Bassett, Jo Harten and Kiera Austin?
That trio never really clicked and there is a real danger of the same thing happening here.
Nailing that shooting setup could be the difference maker for the Firebirds this year..
NSW Swifts – Find your missing mojo
What an interesting year 2020 was for the then reigning premiers. A true season of two halves.
There were times when this team was looking every bit the dynasty that many believe they will become, particularly in the first seven rounds where they went six and one.
That stretch included big wins over the Thunderbirds and Firebirds, hard-fought W’s against the GIANTS, Fever and Magpies and a real statement performance in round seven against the Lightning.
But it was tough going from then on for the girls in red.
They managed just two wins, a draw and five losses in their final eight games, including the heart-breaking Minor Semi Final loss to the Fever that would bring their campaign to an end.
One look at the 2021 Swifts squad suggests that this will be one of the best teams in the competition this year, but Head Coach Briony Akle will definitely be looking at ways she can keep her athletes firing all season long.
It may have just been a matter of the rigors of 2020 eventually getting to the Swifts (I feel that), but fans will be hoping the 2021 team plays with that same swagger and confidence that carried them all the way to premiership glory in 2019.
