Join now and get your first month for just $1.<\/a><\/p>\nBut the victory did come at a cost with midcourter Tayla Williams failing to return after a first quarter tumble.<\/p>\n
Both sides were guilty of early turnovers as a spot in the top two went on the line on Friday night.<\/p>\n
Matilda Garrett was a physical presence in defence, staying on the body of Fever\u2019s Sasha Glasgow, but it was a collision down the other end between Williams and Jess Anstiss that saw the Tbirds midcourter limp off.<\/p>\n
Tayla Williams played no further part after a first quarter collision.Source: FOX SPORTS<\/p>\n
Williams, in her first start for 2026, headed straight into the rooms in worrying scenes. <\/p>\n
But with Georgie Horjus back to WA and Lauren Frew coming on in GA as a result of Williams\u2019 injury blow, it was Adelaide who rallied with six of the next eight goals.<\/p>\n
Romelda Aiken-George, in her Super Netball record-equalling 254th game, then chose the perfect time to sink her first supershot for the year but at quarter time it was still the Tbirds with a 16-13 lead.<\/p>\n
As Williams returned to the bench with her left knee heavily strapped, Adelaide pushed on early in the second term.<\/p>\n
Fever \u2013 the least penalised side in the league \u2013 racked up their 21st penalty compared to Adelaide\u2019s nine in worrying signs for Dan Ryan\u2019s side.<\/p>\n
But as Garrett\u2019s continued pressure on Glasgow rolled on, the England international was benched as Adelaide\u2019s lead grew to eight.\ufeff<\/p>\n
Kate Heffernan comes through for the ball.Source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
The time out came from the Fever late in the second term \u2013 and with it came an absolute spray from leader Fran Williams.<\/p>\n
\u201cStop feeling sorry for ourselves, stop having a pity party and let\u2019s sort it out,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
But just as Adelaide did in their earlier 2026 clash, the Thunderbirds played near perfect netball with only three turnovers for the entire first half. And that helped the side to a 30-20 half time advantage.<\/p>\n
Ryan was left lamenting his \u201ctentative\u201d attack end that went at just 36 per cent centre pass conversion for that \u201cawful\u201d second term.<\/p>\n
And as a result Ruth Aryang and Alice Teague-Neeld \u2013 in her first match in a month \u2013 came on for the third term in wing defence and wing attack respectively.<\/p>\n
But they did little to halt Adelaide\u2019s momentum.<\/p>\n
When Aiken-George hit her second supershot, she sparked the crowd. But Frew\u2019s immediate intercept silenced the green army with the margin out at 14.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe West Coast Fever have been given an absolute lesson here,\u201d Fox Netball\u2019s Sue Gaudion said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is third playing second on the ladder and you wouldn\u2019t know it!\u201d<\/p>\n
By the final change, the margin had blown out to 16 goals as the Fever were staring down their worst-ever defeat to Adelaide.<\/p>\n
The match became a party for the Thunderbirds in the final term as coach Tania Obst rolled the changes.<\/p>\n
Adelaide have now sent a statement to the rest of the competition as they move into outright second.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Adelaide Thunderbirds have cemented themselves in Super Netball\u2019s top two with an historic 20-goal demolition of third-placed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7518,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[8841,8840,395,8849,23,133,8837,8842,8832,7690,290,8847,368,8844,4154,8838,8845,8848,288,120,374,335,8831,8846,8839,8843,8836,8834,8835,353,8833],"class_list":{"0":"post-7517","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-adelaide","8":"tag-absolute-lesson","9":"tag-absolute-spray","10":"tag-adelaide","11":"tag-attack-end","12":"tag-australia","13":"tag-australia-and-new-zealand","14":"tag-cath-cox","15":"tag-catherine-healey","16":"tag-dan-ryan","17":"tag-england","18":"tag-europe","19":"tag-final-change","20":"tag-getty-images-inc","21":"tag-home-side","22":"tag-injury-blow","23":"tag-jess-anstiss","24":"tag-kate-heffernan","25":"tag-kayla-graham","26":"tag-northern-europe","27":"tag-oceania","28":"tag-paul-kane","29":"tag-perth","30":"tag-pity-party","31":"tag-quarter-collision","32":"tag-quarter-time","33":"tag-romelda-aiken-george","34":"tag-super-netball","35":"tag-tayla-williams","36":"tag-time-advantage","37":"tag-western-australia","38":"tag-worst-ever-defeat"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7517","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=7517"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7517\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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