With just three rounds until finals, the 2018 Super Netball season has seen some outstanding individual performances from players in all teams.
And the evenness of the competition means that for most teams, different players are putting their hand up for their franchises each week, while the best teams are enjoying major contributions from all seven players on court.
But with a Nissan MVP announced publicly after each game, who’s been voted “best on” the most among the leagues top players?
The list of who’s racked up the most three-vote performances throughout the season so far might surprise you.
Of course, with two votes and one vote also awarded for every game, being best on court a handful of times is by no means a guarantee of winning the overall award at the end of the season, but it certainly helps!
5 MVPs
Jhaniele Fowler (Fever)
When one player is often scoring as many goals as the entire opposition team, it’s hard not to grab attention.
There’s no denying the impact that Fowler has had on both the West Coast Fever and the competition as a whole in 2018.
The Jamaican import has been voted the best player on court five times already this season and is the key ingredient in the Fever’s stunning rise from 2017 cellar dwellers to ladder leaders and premiership favourites.
4 MVPs
Gretel Tippett (Firebirds) and Liz Watson (Vixens)
Tippett and Watson were both walk-up starts for Samsung Diamonds squad selection last weekend, and with the consistency of their performances this season, it’s not hard to see why.
Tippett’s explosive yet unorthodox playing style might polarise some fans, but it’s been stunningly effective this year. She’s a major threat with the ball in hand or without, having potted 217 goals at 91% accuracy, while offloading 178 goal assists to Romelda Aiken. She also contributes the other way, with 19 deflections and three intercepts.
Watson, meanwhile, has led the Melbourne Vixens’ mid-season charge, with a string of brilliant individual performances helping her team string together five wins on the trot.
She was best on court again against the Thunderbirds in Round 10, finishing with 30 goal assists, and is clearly the premier wing attack in the competition.
3 MVPs
Jo Harten (Giants)
Harten has carried her Commonwealth Games form into the SSN season, and continues to be a versatile weapon at either goal shooter or goal attack for the third-placed Giants.
The 29-year-old is building through the back half of the season, with two of her three MVP performances coming in consecutive weeks in early July, with 30 goals from 34 attempts against the Thunderbirds in Round 9, followed by 29 goals and 14 goal assists the next week in the home derby against the NSW Swifts.
2 MVPs
Caitlin Thwaites (Magpies), Serena Guthrie (Giants), Bec Bulley (Giants), Mwai Kumwenda (Vixens), Sam Wallace (Swifts), Caitlin Bassett (Lightning), Geva Mentor (Lightning), Natalie Medhurst (Fever)
It’s not surprising to see names from teams in finals contention figuring prominently among the group of players to have twice been awarded MVP honours.
Serena Guthrie and Bec Bulley have been exceptionally consistent for the Giants, while Geva Mentor and Caitlin Bassett have bookended the Sunshine Coast Lightning’s rise after the team’s slow start to the season.
Perhaps more impressive is Caitlin Thwaites’ dual MVP awards in a Magpies team that hasn’t fired around her as many predicted it would.
1 MVP
Tegan Philip (Vixens), Helen Housby (Swifts), Sarah Klau (Swifts), Sophie Garbin (Swifts), Tara Hinchliffe (Firebirds), Steph Wood (Lightning), Karla Pretorius (Lightning), Courtney Bruce (Fever), Ingrid Colyer (Fever)
Helen Housby’s electric early-season form will almost certainly have translated into many votes under the league’s 3-2-1 format, but only once has she been named MVP, while her young Swifts teammates Sarah Klau and Sophie Garbin also rate a mention – particularly Garbin, whose role has been limited to providing a spark off the bench.
Karla Pretorius might be worthy of more than one “best on” gong in many fans’ eyes, while Courtney Bruce has also missed out in a couple of games where Jhaniele Fowler has grabbed all the attention.
