who walked away 70-56 point victors. <\/a><\/p>\nAnd while these four competition points will help close the gap between the Swifts and the top four, they need a few more strong wins to secure a finals berth. <\/p>\n
Speaking post match about the win over a team that is sitting higher on the ladder, Swifts captain Maddy Turner said they couldn\u2019t be happier. <\/p>\n
\u201cPlaying at home in front of our home crowd and to do it by over 14 goals we couldn\u2019t be happier. And to do it for Sarah\u2019s (Klau\u2019s) 150th and with Paige (Hadley) back, it was the cherry on top to win.\u201d<\/p>\n
The lead see-sawed throughout the first term, with neither side able to extend beyond three points before it was pulled back. With the superior gain to goal rate, Swifts took a narrow one point lead into the main break. <\/p>\n
Scores were still locked five minutes into the second term, so the Swifts looked for a morale boost. It came in the form of two-time premiership-winning former captain, Paige Hadley, who played 11 minutes in her return to Super Netball. <\/p>\n
Hadley sat out the first half of the season after she and her fianc\u00e9, Jordan, welcomed their first child, Tully, just 11 weeks ago. <\/p>\n
Under the guidance of the Swifts\u2019 medical staff, and with the aim of making it back on court this season, the 33-year-old trained until she was 38 weeks pregnant, then picked it up again quite quickly postpartum. <\/p>\n
Down the other end of the court Tippah Dwan made her Lightning debut during the third term. Dwan is a known super shot shooter, however her injection didn\u2019t have the desired impact on the scoreboard as she finished with zero goals. <\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the shooting woes got worse for the Lightning with Donnell Wallam looking proppy after an uncomfortable landing. While she played out the game, she was less mobile, which became apparent as she was unable to take a few high balls she would have normally pulled in. <\/p>\n
These sprayed balls added to the Lightning\u2019s unacceptable 28 turnovers. The most guilty offenders were their front three of Wallam (8), Cara Koenen (7) and Leesa Mi Mi (5) who only played half a game.<\/p>\n
Lightning captain Liz Watson said, basic errors have left them down again. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been the story for us for a few weeks now and it\u2019s really disappointing for us. We have been training really well and we have been putting pressure on ourselves to hold the ball and not cough it up. We did it well in the first half by then it got away from us again in the second half.\u201d<\/p>\n
After many weeks of negative discourse, penalties were also once again a concern for the Lightning as they finished on 70. Courtney Bruce was the main offender with 20 penalties for only one gain. And with the score blowing out in the third term, the Lightning turned to youngster Ash Ervin to stop the flood of goals going Swifts way. <\/p>\n
The switch didn\u2019t have any impact as the Lightning were unable to stop the connection between youngster Grace Whyte and Grace Nweke. Whyte, in a mammoth MVP performance, put in 41 feeds and also sunk six goals, including three super shots. Nweke shot 61 from 65. <\/p>\n
MEGA MILESTONES<\/p>\n
Sarah Klau (Swifts) and Donnell Wallam (Lightning) celebrated milestones in Saturday\u2019s match. The Adelaide-born Klau notched an incredible 150 national league matches, started her career playing for the Thunderbirds in 2016 before moving north to the Swifts in 2017. Since joining the Swifts, she had not missed a match until this season\u2019s quad injury kept her sidelined for several rounds. <\/p>\n
Wallam\u2019s career was a little less traditional. The 32 year old played her first professional game of netball in 2021 when she was contracted with the Leeds Rhinos in the UK Super League. She then played for the Firebirds from 2022 to 2024 before making the move to New Zealand to play for the Mystics in 2025. Today\u2019s match marked Wallam\u2019s 50th national league match. <\/p>\n
BEAUTIFUL SPORT<\/p>\n
During Round 8\u2019s highly competitive match against the Fever, Lightning\u2019s Cara Koenen took a knock to the face, resulting in an immediate black eye. Mere days later, rather than trying to cover up the shiner, Koenen took to social media, in collaboration with Behind Your Brand, to share untouched photos of this \u2018not-so-beautiful\u2019 part of the sport. Koenen hoped that by sharing the raw images, it would inspire other active women to show up authentically without feeling the need to cover up injuries, blemishes and the like, for fear of how they are perceived. <\/p>\n
TBIRDS SHOWCASE TITLE CREDENTIALS, SPOIL ROMELDA\u2019S PARTY <\/p>\n
\u2014 Jenny Sinclair <\/p>\n
Adelaide Thunderbirds have underscored their Super Netball premiership credentials with a dominant 20-goal win over West Coast Fever in Perth. <\/p>\n
While they didn\u2019t contest last year\u2019s final after going back to back in 2023 and 2024, the Thunderbirds have been building this season, with the 65-45 goal victory showcasing their class and squad depth. <\/p>\n
With second place on the ladder on the line, there was intense defensive pressure all over court, with no easy passage to goal. <\/p>\n
Coach Tania Obst started with Georgie Horjus in goal attack, but quickly switched her out to the wing after Fran Williams came up with two early gains. <\/p>\n
Once that change happened, the Thunderbirds looked more composed with their usual line up<\/p>\n
Recruit of the season Elmere van der Berg was rock solid under the post, mixing movement and elevation to escape the attention of Fever\u2019s keeper, Kadie-Ann Dehaney. <\/p>\n
Fed superbly by the most potent midcourt in the league, the South African topscored with 56\/60 in an MVP performance. <\/p>\n
At the opposite end of the court, the match up between 100 gamer Shamera Sterling-Humphrey and Romelda Aiken-George was feisty from the start, with the two Jamaicans going toe to toe in the circle. <\/p>\n
Aiken-George, who tonight equalled the record for the most national league games played, brought the house down when she sank three rare two pointers, but was overall held to just 34 points. <\/p>\n
She was overshadowed by Sterling-Humphry who repelled attack after attack, finishing with four gains and 11 deflections. <\/p>\n
In the second quarter the Fever made some crucial errors in attack, which the Thunderbirds quickly and smoothly converted at the opposite end. With scoreboard pressure mounting, Fever called two successive time-outs to try and halt momentum, but the Thunderbirds still went into halftime with a 10-point lead. <\/p>\n
One of the key differences between the two sides was their ability to attack the centre pass. Looking almost like they were running a training drill at times, <\/p>\n
The Thunderbirds converted 85 per cent of their centre passes, while Fever struggled at just 67. Kate Heffernan ran the centre bib superbly, with the New Zealand import doing plenty of damage in both attack and defence.<\/p>\n
In the third term, the Fever welcomed back Alice Teague-Neeld from injury at wing attack while also bringing on Ruth Aryang to try and claw back the lead. While the ball was going into the circle more easily, the Thunderbirds gave up just seven errors to the Fever\u2019s 16 across the match, and extended their lead to 16. <\/p>\n
Both teams emptied their bench across the game, with the Thunderbirds controlling every quarter to run out a comfortable 20-point win.<\/p>\n
CROWNING A NEW QUEEN<\/p>\n
In the previous nine seasons of Super Netball, just one Australian has won the league\u2019s MVP \u2014 Horjus in 2024. The other seven titles have gone to two Jamaicans \u2014 Jhaniele Fowler-Nembhard (five times) and Shamera Sterling-Humphry (once), plus England\u2019s Geva Mentor (once). With Fowler-Nembhard absent on maternity leave this season, a new queen will be crowned as the best in the business. Australia\u2019s Jamie-Lee Price appears to be the most likely of the locals, although few would bet against import Sterling-Humphry taking out the prize once again this year. <\/p>\n
MID SEASON SLUMP?<\/p>\n
Thunderbirds\u2019 shooter Elmere van der Berg burst on the Super Netball scene this year, averaging 55 goals per match across her first three games. Between rounds four and six her output dipped to just 39 goals per game, but like a true champion she\u2019s responded. In the last three games she\u2019s been back to her best, averaging 54 goals per game.<\/p>\n
Van der Berg\u2019s form will be key if Thunderbirds want to take out another title this year, while South Africa will also be pinning their Commonwealth Games\u2019 medal hopes on their 24 year old superstar. <\/p>\n
JAMAICAN JUGGERNAUT<\/p>\n
In Friday night\u2019s match, Romelda Aiken-George equalled the most number of national league netball games played, sharing the record with NSW legend turned commentator Cath Cox. Aiken-George played her first domestic game in Australia back in 2008 for the Queensland Firebirds, and since then has also represented the NSW Swifts and Adelaide Thunderbirds. Now in her 19th season, the Jamaican shooter will potentially round out her career with Fever, and should go on to break Cox\u2019s record in a feat that is unlikely to be repeated. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With their Super Netball finals ambitions fading, both the New South Wales Swifts and the Sunshine Coast Lightning…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8275,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[8888,23,133,8837,8883,8891,8881,8884,7690,290,508,368,8885,8890,8887,8882,8845,8848,8895,8886,8880,8889,2294,288,120,374,335,8896,8843,8897,8894,8893,8892,8879,353],"class_list":{"0":"post-8274","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-perth","8":"tag-africa","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-australia-and-new-zealand","11":"tag-cath-cox","12":"tag-centre-bib","13":"tag-centre-passes","14":"tag-defensive-pressure","15":"tag-elmer-van-der-berg","16":"tag-england","17":"tag-europe","18":"tag-games-record","19":"tag-getty-images-inc","20":"tag-goal-attack","21":"tag-goal-victory","22":"tag-jenny-sinclair","23":"tag-kadie-ann-dehaney","24":"tag-kate-heffernan","25":"tag-kayla-graham","26":"tag-league-netball-games","27":"tag-national-league","28":"tag-national-league-games","29":"tag-national-league-netball","30":"tag-new-zealand","31":"tag-northern-europe","32":"tag-oceania","33":"tag-paul-kane","34":"tag-perth","35":"tag-premiership-credentials","36":"tag-romelda-aiken-george","37":"tag-scoreboard-pressure-mounting","38":"tag-showcase-title-credentials","39":"tag-south-africa","40":"tag-southern-africa","41":"tag-thunderbirds","42":"tag-western-australia"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8274","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=8274"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8274\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}