By Matt Fotia
For the first time in more than a decade, the Adelaide Thunderbirds have been crowned minor premiers.
The 2023 Suncorp Super Netball premiers stormed home to claim the minor premiership, and Major Semi Final hosting rights, finishing above the Vixens and Fever thanks to their impressive percentage and coach Tania Obst says that her troops would not be taking that for granted.
“It’s a really big achievement for our club,” Obst said.
“We really need to enjoy these moments, they don’t come round all the time.”
They toasted their home and away success with a testing win over the Sunshine Coast Lightning in front of a vocal Adelaide Entertainment Centre, holding off a determined Lightning side to win 64-62.
The Lightning trailed by as many as 10 goals during the third quarter, before fighting back to draw level with less than three minutes remaining in the game.
Thunderbirds favourite Georgie Horjus stepped up to drain a big Super Shot before consecutive goals from Romelda Aiken-George sealed the win.
The Thunderbirds did it tough against the Lightning, but ended up claiming their first SSN minor premiership.Obst praised the performances of both sides and expressed her pleasure in seeing her side's ability to stand up under pressure.
“There was some really good netball played out there, two world class teams having a real dip,” Obst explained.
“I thought they had a stranglehold on it, but we were able to wrestle that back.
“Really pleased that we were able to create the turnover ball that we did, and we were efficient to goal with that.”
The Thunderbirds had breezed through the five games leading into Sunday’s game against the Lightning, winning those encounters by an average margin of 17.2 goals, including big wins over the Vixens and the Fever.
Adelaide was under no illusions about the challenge the Lighting posed and were happy to have such a high intensity fixture on the eve of the finals, to really put their game under the microscope.
“We knew the Lightning are a good team, with good players in their team and they were going to be fighting for their position within the four,” Obst said.
“To have a close game, gives us more evidence around things that we’ve done really well or things we can improve on heading into next week.”
The Thunderbirds host the Vixens on Saturday evening at Adelaide 36ers Arena, three weeks after dismantling Simone McKinnis’ side by 15 goals.
Obst expects to see a different Vixens outfit on Saturday as both sides look to book their place in the 2024 decider.
“We’ll have a look at what the Vixens have done over the last couple of weeks,” Obst said.
“What we did against them last time, versus what they’ve been putting out the last couple of weeks.
“We’ll analyse and strategize our game plan for them, have our normal trainings and then be ready for next Saturday night.”
