When: Saturday 14 July 7.00pmWhere: Quay Centre, SydneyBroadcast: Telstra TV and the Netball Live appTickets: Buy here
Last time they met in Round 4:
Fever (63) defeated Swifts (54)
MATCH-UP
Fever
Swifts
Mins in Possession
29
30
Gain
20
14
Intercepts
14
7
Deflections
15
8
Goal Shooting %
87
81
There were a few fighting words from both sides leading into the game, with Swifts captain Abbey McCulloch claiming her team only needed to focus on seven players – whereas Fever had to worry about the entire 10 strong Swifts roster. Fever coach, Stacey Marinkovich, labelled the comment as ‘disrespectful’ and used nine players during the game.
VIDEO
Game talking points:
With Swifts sitting in sixth position after last round’s 10-goal loss to Giants Netball, they will need to bounce back quickly against Fever if they want to stay in with a finals shout.
There are now only three points separating Fever and Giants on the ladder, so Fever know that there is absolutely no room for error if they want to win the minor premiership and take finals netball to Perth.
England international Nat Haythornthwaites has joined the Swifts until the end of the season. She’s a Commonwealth Gold Medal winner, who has just won the English Superleague title for the second year in a row with Wasps Netball – bringing a much-needed winning mentality to the Sydney side.
If Swifts want to win…
They will have to try to use the home court to their advantage and let the Sydney crowd drive them on. This will be one of their more difficult games of the season so far, and they will need to be clever to stop service getting into Jhaniele Fowler. Being one of the youngest teams in the league, they will need to use energy to their advantage and get in the faces of their opposition – particularly in the mid court – if they want to walk away with the honours.
If Fever want to win…
Fever will know that the Swifts have been renowned for starting games slowly this season and will be looking to put together a solid lead by the half-time buzzer. The Swifts are young and energetic, but don’t pose as much of a physical threat as some of the other teams in the league. Having said that, Fever will know that they won’t be able to switch off at any point during the game because the Swifts will never give up, and will fancy their chances of pulling back the score no matter how big the margin.
Key match-ups:
Courtney Bruce (Fever) and Sam Wallace (Swifts) will be the pair to watch in this game, both playing top quality netball for their team. Wallace’s shooting averages of 305 goals off 339 attempts will make for a tough challenge for Bruce, but the Fever defender has been one of the standout players in the league this season and will thrive on the challenge of taking on a strong Swifts attacking pairing.
