By Matt Fotia
The 2023 Suncorp Super Netball Season continues to bring the drama.
Two one-goal finishes on Sunday had fans on the edge of their sets, with the Super Shot playing a massive role, while a power outage caused chaos in Adelaide.
Here’s what went down in round two of Suncorp Super Netball.
LIGHTS OUT IN ADELAIDE
With the Adelaide Thunderbirds coming off the back of a strong pre-season and a big round one victory, there was understandable excitement in the crowd at Netball SA Stadium, as a packed house eagerly awaited the home side's clash with the NSW Swifts.
The crowd would have to wait to get glimpse of their side, with the start delayed due to further work being completed on the playing surface.
Still the crowd stayed patient and were enjoying a thrilling encounter at half time with the scores level at 25 apiece before a power outage delayed play even further.
Darkness blanketed Netball SA Stadium.A high voltage transformer issue caused the outage.
Officials were later informed that it would be several hours until power could be restored meaning the match could not be completed in the allocated timeframe in which it must be played.
With scored tied, the game was declared a draw and the points shared in accordance with the SSN rules of the game.
The result means the Thunderbirds remain undefeated while also handing the Swifts their first points of the season.
CARDWELL AND DWAN IMPRESS AGAIN
Adelaide Thunderbirds coach Tania Obst has stuck with the Cardwell-Austin shooting circle to start both of their fixtures this season, but must be tempted to hand Tippah Dwan the start when the Thunderbirds run out this weekend, after the mobile goaler impressed again in the second quarter on Saturday night.
Dwan, who came on at the sixth minute of the second quarter, has been dynamite in the goal attack position whenever she is on court and allows English import Eleanor Cardwell to slot into her preferred goal shooter role.
The stats back this up, with the Thunderbirds overturning a six goal deficit during Dwan's time on court. Tippah shot two goals (100% accuracy) and had three assists and five feeds in her limited game time, whilst Cardwell went seven for seven when Dwan was on court.
English import Eleanor Cardwell has been a key addition to the Thunderbirds.MELBOURNE DERBY DELIVERS
The Melbourne Derby promised to be a thrilling encounter and it did not disappoint, with the Vixens coming from from behind to pinch victory on the buzzer, thanks to a Mwai Kumwenda Super Shot.
But the elephant in the room is the fact the win was marred by an error in the final term in which the Vixens were awarded two centre passes in a row.
"Netball Australia is now reviewing the circumstances that led to an error in the fourth quarter of yesterday's match between the Collingwood Magpies and the Melbourne Vixens, where the Vixens were awarded two consecutive centre passes," the organisation said in a statement.
Netball Australia is reviewing what led to the Vixens getting two centre passes in a row."Under the Suncorp Super Netball Rules of the Game, the result of the match stands with the Melbourne Vixens winning 62-61."
While the Magpies group will be frustrated at the events that transpired, they were the best side for majority of the night but it was the Vixens who were near flawless in the final five.
With 4:55 left on the clock in the last quarter the Magpies extended their lead to seven thanks to a Shimona Nelson goal.
The lead was cut down really quickly. The Vixens scored seven of the last 10 goals in the match, including four Super Shots all from the hot hand Kumwenda who finished 4/4 on the long shot.
Mwai Kumwenda turned it on in the last quarter.SUPERSHOT GIANTS
It's been a long running tag that the GIANTS are the biggest exponents of the Super Shot and on Sunday they added fuel to that particular fire, with the returning Jo Harten and young gun Sophie Dwyer draining a number of two pointers in their one goal loss to the West Coast Fever.
The GIANTS duo attempted a whopping 23 Super Shots across the course of the game, 16 more than the Fever.
They sunk 15 from their 23 attempts.
Dwyer finished with eight from 10 attempts, whilst Harten had seven from 13, including three from three in a tense final quarter.
Despite their dominance from long range, the GIANTS only won two of the four 'power fives' and won just one quarter in the loss to the reigning premier and sit second last on the table ahead of big clash with the Vixens this weekend.
