{"id":45108,"date":"2026-07-06T06:54:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-06T06:54:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/45108\/"},"modified":"2026-07-06T06:54:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-06T06:54:13","slug":"pink-army-gathers-in-rundle-mall-to-welcome-home-victorious-thunderbirds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/45108\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Pink army’ gathers in Rundle Mall to welcome home victorious Thunderbirds"},"content":{"rendered":"

A sea of pink filled Adelaide’s Rundle Mall today as South Australia’s much-loved Thunderbirds returned home after a historic grand final win.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Adelaide Thunderbirds defeated the Melbourne Vixens in front of 10,040 fans at John Cain Arena and came out on top with a 21-goal margin — the largest in the national netball league era.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Thunderbirds beat the Vixens 61-40.<\/p>\n

Today, “the pink army” gathered in Rundle Mall to welcome home the victorious team.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Hundreds<\/p>\n

Hundreds of fans cheered as the team walked on stage.\u00a0 (ABC News)<\/p>\n

‘Words can’t describe’ excitement<\/p>\n

Fan J’Aime Braysher said she watched the game with her family, including grandfather Lou Baker, and was “surprised” by the outcome.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I was so nervous,” she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“We actually made it, I was surprised.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I am so proud … they did so good this year, only one loss.”<\/p>\n

Charlie Reid, who has played more than 100 netball games for his under 13s mixed team, said that “words can’t describe” how excited he was when the Thunderbirds won.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I’ve been watching them for a long time,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Young<\/p>\n

Charlie Reed has played more than 100 netball games. (ABC News)<\/p>\n

Skylah Eime, who also plays netball, said she felt “really” proud of the Adelaide Thunderbirds.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Her mother Sharni Eime added that the team gives young girls someone to look up to. \u00a0<\/p>\n

“I think it’s so good for the little girls as well, just to have something to look forward to, and some girls to look up to,” she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Sharni Eime, and her daughter Skylah, were extremely proud when the Thunderbirds won on Saturday night.\u00a0 (ABC News)<\/p>\n

‘South Australia is our team’<\/p>\n

Bronwyn Klei, Chief Executive Officer at Netball South Australia and the Adelaide Thunderbirds, thanked supporters for being “the best fans in the league”.<\/p>\n

“This is obviously a very big day for netball in South Australia and the Adelaide Thunderbirds and on behalf of everybody I just want to say the biggest thank you to the pink army — they are the best fans in the league,” she said. \u00a0<\/p>\n

“Netball is a team sport and all of South Australia is our team.”<\/p>\n

Acting South Australian Premier Kyam Maher referred to the win as “an amazing victory”.<\/p>\n

“To see Adelaide doing so well makes us all so very proud.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Opposition leader Ashton Hurn referred to the grand final as a “ripper”.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“They’ve had an incredible season and it was topped off by an absolute ripper grand final,” she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Celebrations continue<\/p>\n

The Thunderbirds kept the party going with Mad Monday celebrations and swapped their netball uniforms for costumes of their favourite childhood characters.<\/p>\n

\"women<\/p>\n

The Adelaide Thunderbirds continued their Mad Monday celebrations by dressing up.\u00a0 (Supplied: Adelaide Thunderbirds)<\/p>\n

The Thunderbirds’ win comes after it was announced last month that co-captain Georgie Horjus will play for the Australian Diamonds in the Glasgow Commonwealth Games.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

The Commonwealth games will kick off later this month.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A date is yet to be set for the start of the 2027 Suncorp Super Netball season.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A sea of pink filled Adelaide’s Rundle Mall today as South Australia’s much-loved Thunderbirds returned home after a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":45109,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[395,32867,30549,8378,34272,33339,121,8836,8879],"class_list":["post-45108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-adelaide","tag-adelaide","tag-georgie-horjus","tag-melbourne-vixens","tag-netball","tag-netball-premiership","tag-rundle-mall","tag-south-australia","tag-super-netball","tag-thunderbirds"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45108"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45108\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}