By Matt Fotia
The Sunshine Coast Lightning’s 2024 campaign may have underwhelmed the wider netball community, but Diamonds captain Liz Watson is bullish about their future.
The Lightning entered the 2024 season as universal premiership favourites after a productive off-season.
The new-look team secured the signings of Diamonds duo Liz Watson and Courtney Bruce to link up with existing Australian internationals Steph Fretwell and Cara Koenen.
However, the Lightning struggled to inject any real momentum into their season despite their star-studded line-up, and won just six matches for the year, falling into the finals on percentage.
Speaking after the Lightning’s 10 goal Minor Semi Final loss to the Fever on Sunday, Watson said she was still proud of what her and her teammates put out in 2024.
“It’s been an incredible season,” Watson said.
“I’m really proud of this group.”
Watson pointed out while t there is a lot of international experience in the Lightning squad, there is also a lot of inexperience.
While Fretwell, Bruce, Koenen and Watson have played more than 500 SSN games, and won seven premierships between them, Ava Black, Reilley Batcheldor, Leesa Mi Mi and Ashleigh Ervin have all played less than 30 games of Suncorp Super Netball and were playing in their first ever final on Sunday.
The Lightning have plenty of big names.“We’ve got such experience, but also girls where this was the biggest game of their career to date,” Watson explained.
“They’ve been embracing this finals experience.
“You’ve really got to embrace the week when you make finals. They put their hearts out there tonight and did everything they could, which is what you want from young players.
“They’ve stepped up and shown they’re the future of this club and I’m excited to be a part of that.”
Sunshine Coast led Sunday’s game by two at quarter time and were down by just one goal at the main break before the Fever pulled away in the second half.
The Lightning missed 23 shots for the game, compared to the Fever’s five, and went 8 for 21 from super shot range.
Lightning coach Belinda Reynolds said her side had to take on the super shot to put the pressure back on the Fever in the second half.
“Going into the third quarter power five we were down, and Fever are such a strong one-point team,” Reynolds explained.
“They’re going to knock down those ones, so when you’re chasing (the game) it’s hard to pull back a lead unless you go for them (super shots).”
Like Watson, Reynolds also expressed pride in the Lightning’s performance.
“We put it all out there,” she said.
“We wanted to attack this contest and be brave.
“Things didn’t go our way today, but the pleasing thing was we attacked the scoreboard, and had more attempts than Fever for the game.”
