Round 12 Match Preview: Melbourne Vixens V GIANTS Netball

When: Sunday 22 July, 1pm (AEST)
Where: Hisense Arena, Melbourne
Tickets: Purchase here
Broadcast: Live on Channel 9 (NSW, ACT, QLD, TAS, VIC, NT only), GEM (WA only), Telstra TV and the Netball Live app

Last time they met in Round 5:

GIANTS Netball (58) defeated Melbourne Vixens (51)

The Giants managed to beat the Vixens by seven goals to pick up their fourth win in five matches.

Game talking points:

• The Giants will need to recover quickly from their defeat last weekend, as this is one of the biggest games of their season so far. Another loss here would damage their confidence.
• The Vixens are on a run of five straight wins, but this is the start of three extremely tough fixtures – so despite moving into 2nd place last weekend their final’s position is far from secured.
• The mid-court battle in this game is absolutely massive, with both sides possessing three incredibly gifted players in the centre of the court. Dominating the ball and gaining space is going to be very tough for both teams.

If Vixens want to win…

Kate Moloney and Renae Ingles have been doing a great job of putting Liz Watson in good attacking positions in recent weeks, allowing her to feed the circle with heaps of goal assists. It’s going to be a lot tougher in this game for the Vixens to dominate the mid-court, with the likes of Serena Guthrie being an expert at covering ground and putting out fires. It’s unlikely that the Vixens shooting pair of Tegan Philip and Mwai Kumwenda are going to get as much service in this games, as they have had the privilege of in recent weeks, therefore they are going to have to be ruthless under the hoop if they want to get their team the win.

If Giants want to win…

With Emily Mannix missing for the Vixens, Jo Harten and Susan Pettitt will be looking to use their vast wealth of experience to put the Vixens replacement goalkeeper, Kadie-Ann Dehaney, under pressure. If the Giants can start off by stopping Liz Watson from being able to be creative in good areas, then they will fancy their chances of taking a massive away win. They were rattled by the Queensland Firebirds last weekend and were unable to recover from a slow start to the game, which is something they will have to avoid doing this week because if the Vixens get on a good run early – they will be difficult to hunt down.

Key match ups:

There are three head-to-heads in this game that are going to be exciting to watch unfold, right across the mid-court. All three individual battles are between players at the very top of their game, the calibre of netball in the mid-court is going to be involving world class players. There’s absolutely no knowing who will dominate!