By Matt Fotia
West Coach Fever coach Dan Ryan has declared Jhaniele Fowler is the best goaler in netball history.
Fowler-Nembhard celebrated her birthday by putting on yet another shooting masterclass on Sunday afternoon.
The five-time league MVP shot 67 goals from 69 attempts (the two misses were late super shot attempts), as the Fever downed the Sunshine Coast Lightning by 10 goals to set up a Preliminary Final clash with the Melbourne Vixens.
She once again leads the competition for Nissan Net Points (1704.5) and goals scored, shooting her 880 goals at a shooting accuracy of 96%.
Ryan didn’t hide his admiration for his first-choice goal shooter after the Minor Semi Final victory.
“She’s the greatest goal shooter our game has ever seen,” Ryan said.
“Because she has such high standards every single weekend, everyone has such incredibly high standards of her.
“We’re so grateful that she’s in our team and we have a real priority to ensure we get the best out of Jhaniele, with who sits in front of her.
“She’s been an incredible leader, the way she’s leading that front line, she’s happy to take a 2v1 if she needs to, she’s backing in Shanice when she needs to.
“We’re seeing mum mode from Jhaniele out there and we absolutely love it.”
Shanice Beckford has benefited from Fowler-Nembhard's presence.Fowler-Nembhard’s perfect first half performance kept the Fever in touch with the Lightning on Sunday, before the 2022 champions put the foot down in the second half to keep their premiership hopes alive.
They outscored the Lightning 36-27 after the main break, had nine gains (eight of which they converted to goals) and five defensive rebounds, to put an end to the Lightning’s season.
Ryan was happy to see his side find another level after half time.
“We’ve been tracking really nicely over the last month and playing some great netball,” he said.
“We knew we were in a good spot heading into today’s game, and we really wanted to make sure we found an extra gear.
“The first half was a real grind and a real challenge, and we were certainly under the pump.
“Really proud of the girls for the way they stuck at their jobs and when the moments popped up in that second half, we took them.
“To win by ten in a do-or-die semi-final is an amazing result.”
The Fever have now won their last four games, finding form at the right time, after a mid-season wobble where they to string together back-to-back victories.
Ryan said the takeaways from those mid-season blues will hold his side in good stead ahead of their return to John Cain Arena this Saturday.
“Our team’s been on a really important journey across the season, and we always connect back to the mid part of the season where we went win-loss-win-loss for a while,” Ryan stated.
“The learnings we were getting out of those moments were invaluable and we’ve got great confidence now in these pressure games.”
“We’re really grateful for another opportunity to play netball under finals pressure,
“We know we’re in great form and we’re going to be really hard to beat at our best.”
