By Paddy Regester
Indigenous Round is an important pair of weeks for the Suncorp Super Netball league.
It goes way beyond the beautiful dress designs which the teams will wear in Rounds 5 and 6x and past our Indigenous Round ball and court decals designed by Simone Thomson.
Indigenous Round gives the netball community a chance to come together and applaud the hard work being done in this space by the sport, to learn and to demand more.
Enjoy the celebrations, soak up the teachings and, of course, enjoy eight games of the world’s best netball league.
Let’s breakdown the first four of those.
Queensland Firebirds vs Melbourne Vixens – Saturday, 3pm AEST, Nissan Arena, Brisbane – Tickets
A big game between two teams trending in the wrong direction will kick-off Round 5, with the winless Melbourne Vixens travelling to Brisbane to take on a Queensland Firebirds side trying to snap a two-game losing streak.
The Firebirds would have been disappointed with their performance against the Magpies in Tasmania last week, and will no doubt use that loss as motivation against the other Victorian side. They’ll also take confidence from the fact that they were one of just two teams who were able to beat the eventual champions in 2020.
Maybe the biggest issue for the Firebirds during this two-game skid has been the shooting percentage. They shot at 73% against the GIANTS two weeks ago and 81% against the Magpies in Launceston, both below the league average of 83.6%.
Although, if Romelda Aiken, Gretel Bueta and Tippah Dwan’s collective radar is off for a third consecutive week, this might be the game to do it as they’ll take on the league’s most inaccurate shooting circle in the Vixens.
It’s been a horror start to the 2021 season for the Vixens, who had previously never lost the first four matches of a season in the Club’s history. They have won just three quarters out of 16 so far and have failed to crack the 60-point mark through four rounds.
A silver-ling for the Vixens has to be the continued improvement of Hannah Mundy. She had her best performance of her SSN career against a tough customer in Amy Parmenter last week and should come into this battle against Gabi Simpson feeling like she can mix it with the best.
But expect to see a pumped-up Firebirds outfit hit the Nissan Arena court tomorrow. They are playing some of the most exciting netball in the league to start the season but are struggling to string together four quarters and put teams away. If they can lift that shooting accuracy up beyond 85% and keep the penalty count down, they lead the league in contact and obstruction calls, they will trouble the struggling Vixens.
Adelaide Thunderbirds vs Sunshine Coast Lightning – Sunday, 1pm AEST, Netball SA Stadium, Adelaide – Tickets
There’s a lot on the line in this sneaky-crucial match between the winless Adelaide Thunderbirds and the Sunshine Coast Lightning. A win or loss here would drastically change the outlook of these two teams as we creep towards the halfway point of the season.
While a fifth straight loss for Adelaide certainly wouldn’t be the end of their 2021 campaign, it would be a pretty rough start to a run of four matches where they will play three of the top four teams.
A win here would not only help them stay in touch with the top four, it would also cap-off a series of impressive yet unsuccessful performances with a win over a really tough opponent.
That opponent, of course, is a Lightning team desperately trying to keep pace with an undefeated GIANTS team that seems unstoppable. And they’ll fancy themselves as favourites after a strong win over the NSW Swifts in Round 4.
It was all clicking for the Lightning last week, with Karla Pretorius and Phumza Maweni dominating a strong Swifts attack end, Cara Koenen shooting a super steady 95%, Steph Wood hitting four critical Super Shots and Laura Scherian leading the way through the midcourt with a game high 19 goal assists from 27 feeds.
The Thunderbirds will be trying to emulate their opening quarter performance against the Fever, one of the most impressive quarters of netball we’ve seen so far this season.
They came out and stunned the rampaging West Coast, holding the high-scoring Fever to just 13-points while putting up their highest scoring quarter so far this season with 21. Shamera Sterling was causing havoc in defence, opening the game with four gains, Hannah Petty shutdown Verity Charles and Lenize Potgieter and Georgie Horjus combined for 73 Nissan Net Points in just 15 minutes.
Yes, they then went on to allow 57 points to 41 in the eight-point loss, but we now know that this side has that kind of performance in them, they just have to string together some strong quarters.
But the Lightning are a very different beast to the Fever. More methodical and defensive minded than all-out speed and attack.
If Shamera Sterling and Matilda Garrett, who has been building this year, can shut down this moving attack end, the Thunderbirds will like their chances at home in this one.
NSW Swifts vs Collingwood Magpies – Sunday, 3pm AEST, Ken Rosewall Arena, Sydney – Tickets
Can’t ask for much more than to cap your weekend of netball off with a third vs fourth battle in the beautiful, hopefully warmer than last time, Ken Rosewall Arena.
And this one between the streaking Collingwood Magpies and up-and-down NSW Swifts should be a lot of fun.
The Swifts were wasteful in their Round 4 loss to the Lightning and will be disappointed not to celebrate Briony Akle’s 50th game as head coach with a win, considering they led the match with just under seven-minutes to play.
Co-captain Maddy Proud has been ruled out for a second straight week with a foot injury, a big loss for the Swifts but one that they are in a good position to cover. Besides a pair of bad cross-court passes in the fourth, Nat Haythornthwaite had a solid match in relief for Proud at WA and should slot straight into that starting seven for this match.
The major concern for the Swifts will be getting the combination right through the middle, particularly the wing defence position. Lauren Moore, who most would consider a natural GD, has struggled against the speedy WA’s of the competition when asked to put on the WD bib.
Laura Scherian certainly ran laps around her last Sunday, which should have Kelsey Browne, the league’s leader in assists and one of the best wing attacks on the planet, licking her lips.
And it wont just be Browne fired up to play the Swifts on Sunday, Head Coach Nicole Richardson has Collingwood playing with a belief that was absent last season. It’s not pretty but it’s getting the job done.
Jodi-Ann Ward has played a vital role in the team’s two game win streak and her matchup against Helen Housby, alongside the massive Sam Wallace vs Geva Mentor battle, might decide the outcome of this one.
A win to either team here could mean a spot in the top two come rounds end, while a loss could have them looking up at the top four on Monday night.
West Coast Fever vs GIANTS Netball – Monday, 8pm AEST, RAC Arena, Perth – Tickets
Talk about saving the best until last. The two undefeated teams of the competition will duke it out in Perth to close-out Round 5 and weekend one of Indigenous Round.
So, who do we think comes out of Round 5 as the only team without a mark in the loss column; the fired up West Coast Fever or the ladder leading GIANTS?
It’s certainly a tough one to call. They share the title of highest-scoring teams in the competition through four weeks with 267 points scored for. Tough to separate the two teams defensively as well where the GIANTS have allowed a league-low 220 points, just two less than the Fever.
The GIANTS will be eyeing off the Power Five as a place where they might be able to pull away from the Fever. No team attempts more Super Shots than the GIANTS per game (14.5) and only the Thunderbirds (52.1%) and Firebirds (51.9%) are more accurate shooting them (GIANTS – 51.7%).
On the other hand, the Fever are one of the least Super Shot reliant teams in the comp, attempting a third lowest 23 two-pointers. Instead, they lean on that ultra-efficient attack, leading the league in goals from gain and goals from centre pass rate while trailing just the Swifts in overall shooting percentage (87.7%).
We’re not getting any closer to deciding who will win this one, are we?
Putting a microscope on the individual matchups doesn’t help either.
Sam Poolman and April Brandley have been great to start the season and might be the best positioned defensive pairing, with Kristiana Manu’a still easing her way back in from a calf injury, to take on the league’s highest scorer Jhaniele Fowler, Sasha Glasgow and Alice Teague-Neeld. Same story down the other end, where Courtney Bruce, Sunday Aryang and Stacey Francis should matchup nicely against MVP favourite Jo Harten and young sniper Sophie Dwyer. And, with Maddie Hay developing into a real weapon for the GIANTS at WA, it’s hard to separate two of the best midcourt units in the league.
This one is too close to call and we can’t wait to see what happens.
