She shook her head and said, ‘Sharns, it’s taken a step up again. I didn’t know that this sport could keep stepping up, but it just does’.
It’s a great sign for what’s in store for the rest of the season when we’re seeing record-breaking netball already, and it’s only Round 2!
FEVER WOES LAID BARE
This week I took a good look at the goal attacks across the league, as I thought their performances were so pivotal to their teams’ results.
The one that sticks out like a sore thumb, of course, is the West Coast Fever without Nat Medhurst.
It’s an interesting decision that Fever made to get rid of her. Why would you get rid of a player that knew how to feed your most dominant player?
There’s obviously things that you don’t see behind the scenes: was she a good fit for the team, are there other things that went on? But it does make us ask those questions because it’s now obvious that her ability and creativity to be able to get the ball to Fowler were next level, and helped get them to their first grand final.
Fowler (83 Nissan Net Points, 55 goals) dominated again in Round 2, but netball is a team sport (which is what we love about it). As much as it’s the old cliche is true, a champion team is better than a team of champions – or a team with a champion. As much as the rest of the Fever players need to step up, it was their struggles at goal attack that would have the Fever coaching staff worried.
As a goal attack you can’t just rely on your mate Jhaniele to be putting those shots in for you. You all need to step up and the thing is, it’s up to Alice Teague-Neeld (19 Net Points, 0/5 shooting) and Kaylia Stanton (17 Net Points) to be really strong. If you’re going to be in that goal attack position, then you need to provide a strong enough option for someone to come out on you to keep the defenders busy.
It’s going to hurt Fever defensively, too, because when you don’t have a goal attack that’s going to stand up, then the opposition goal keepers and goal defences can sit in the circle manning Fowler, and they have so much more energy to drive the ball down the court, which then gives the opposition attackers more energy to move in their goal third, because they’re not having to drive so far up to help out with that downcourt transition.
That’s how the Sunshine Coast Lightning scored 80 goals and Steph Wood (18 goals, 16 goal assists, 16 centre pass receives) collected 121 Nissan Net Points – not purely because Courtney Bruce wasn’t there.
TIPPETT A WORK IN PROGRESS
Gretel Tippett should have been the matchwinner for the Firebirds on Saturday.
With 26 goals at 96% accuracy, 28 centre pass receives and 12 goal assists, she was the standout athlete on the court.
But when she ends up with only 55.5 Nissan Net Points because she’s turned the ball over 10 times, had eight contacts and three obstructions, she’d be frustrated and look back at that game as one that definitely got away.
I don’t blame Gretel for the loss, though – it’s the excitement and work rate that she brings to a game that gets her the positive Net Points, but also the fatigue in the workload that brings the errors. With a player like her (which I was similar) she needs her teammates to step up around her and provide support.
I was just less damaging because I was a GK, but when you’re in attack you can’t afford to have that many mistakes. Is she worth the risk? I think it’s more exciting for the game, we need more Gretel Tippetts and her pros outweigh her cons. But if I was coach, I would be asking Romelda Aiken and Caitlin Nevins to help control/calm her once she has ball in hands.
As a player that played against her in grand finals (it’s funny because she ended up shooting the winning goal against us in 2015, and that whole game Julie Corletto and I were yelling, ‘She won’t shoot it, she won’t shoot it’) she was the one we’d try to get under the skin of, because we knew if there was a ball that was going to go astray it was going to be from her.
She’s definitely come a long way since then, and you don’t want to create a calm player out of Gretel because she has that X-factor that few other players possess.
But if she can tame some of her decision-making, keep the aggressive workload to get the ball but build on her calm composure, once she ‘gets it’ – she could lead the Firebirds back to finals and find herself in the Diamonds starting seven for the World Championships.
