WEST Coast Fever got back on the winners list in a big way defeating Adelaide Thunderbirds by 25 goals, 69-44. Playing in front of their home crowd for what is expected to be the last time this season, the Fever faithful farewelled outgoing coach Stacey Marinkovich in style as the side bounced back from two consecutive shock losses.

Jhaniele Fowler picked up where she left off nailing the opening goal of the game for the Fever to quickly assert her side’s dominance. But the Thunderbirds were up to the task early in the piece as youngster Georgie Horjus answered the call with a goal of her own. In fact, both sides traded blows for the first few minutes before the home side managed to find some continuity with Fowler sinking back-to-back goals. Holding a two-goal lead the Fever looked to be in control of proceedings with Verity Charles proving to be a thorn in the Thunderbirds’ side with her pinpoint passes into Fowler causing all sorts of headaches early.

But the momentum started to slowly swing as the Thunderbirds connections in attack started to come to the fore. Maisie Nankivell found her groove with her hustle around circle edge allowing her to deliver crafty passes into Lenize Potgieter who was simply on fire inside the circle. There was plenty of niggle under the post with Potgieter and Courtney Bruce going toe-to-toe and contesting hard for every inch of space. The Thunderbirds went on a three-goal run as they stole the lead from the Fever and claimed some ascendancy on the match. Playing with confidence and conviction the Thunderbirds held sway extending to a three-goal lead. But each time the Thunderbirds tried to pull away West Coast would find a way to edge their way back into the match with a couple of big defensive wins and consecutive shots.

It was a complete switch up in the second term as the Fever put the foot down. Adelaide’s one goal buffer quickly evaporated as Fowler went on a tear slotting five goals straight while it took three and a half minutes for the Thunderbirds to put their first goal on the board in the second term. Shamera Sterling and Matilda Garrett simply had no answers for what West Coast were throwing at them as the home side penetrated the defence with great ease and arrested control. Elle McDonald’s injection into the centre to replace Hannah Petty took a while to kick into gear as the Fever’s well drilled midcourt took centre stage. The combination between Charles and Jess Anstiss was firing on all cylinders as they directed traffic and dished off silky passes into Fowler as the lead steadily grew.

Down by 10 goals the Thunderbirds rung in the changes as Sam Gooden entered the fray as Horjus pushed out to wing attack. Petty re-entered the game in at wing defence as Nankivell was gifted the centre bib to try and rein in the Fever who were cruising along nicely. Bruce and Sunday Aryang were up and about creating deflections and intercepts aplenty as they halted the ball from entering the goal circle with their stifling defence. Unfortunately for the Thunderbirds the changes made next to no difference as the Fever continued to motor on. A super shot from Potgieter almost sparked the Thunderbirds into action but Alice Teague-Neeld replied with one of her own as the Fever went into half time with a commanding nine-goal lead.

It was much of the same in the third quarter as the Fever continued on their merry way in attack. Sasha Glasgow made her way onto the court and while she was not overly accurate to post her smarts to pass off into Fowler was on full display. The Fever seemed to have the ball on a string as the Thunderbirds simply could not get ball into the circle. Stacey Francis-Bayman was doing a mountain-load of work in wing defence to nullify the influence of Horjus while Bruce and Aryang blocked the movement of the goalers in the circle. A string of four goals to the Fever extended their lead to 15 goals as they refused to take the foot off the pedal.

The final quarter did not get any better for the Thunderbirds as Tania Obst threw the bibs in the air. The visitors could not find any form of continuity rendered goalless for five minutes while the Fever were having a field day out on court. West Coast capitalised on every single turnover that came their way with their desperation and hunt on full display. Potgieter added some respectability back on the scoreboard with three goals in a row but that was short-lived as the Fever once again asserted their dominance to run out with a dominant 25-goal win.

Fowler was once again at her damaging best piling on 57 goals from 58 attempts as Glasgow slotted six from 12 but racked up eight goal assists. Teague-Neeld also had an influence with her 12 assists but it was Charles that proved unstoppable with her 27 goal assists. Bruce and Aryang were up to their usual tricks down back amassing a combined 10 gains including seven intercepts and seven deflections. Potgieter shot at 100 per cent for the Thunderbirds draining 26 goals straight as Horjus chimed in with five goals and Gooden slotted eight. Nankivell registered 16 goal assists, the highest of any Thunderbird on court while down back it was the efforts of Sterling that shone through as the goal keeper managed two intercepts and six deflections.

West Coast Fever 14 | 20 | 16  | 19 (69)
Adelaide Thunderbirds 15 | 10 | 11 | 8 (44)

STARTING SEVEN: 

Fever: 

GS: Jhaniele Fowler
GA: Alice Teague-Neeld
WA: Verity Charles
C: Jess Anstiss
WD: Stacey Francis-Bayman
GD: Sunday Aryang
GK: Courtney Bruce

Thunderbirds:

GS: Lenize Potgieter
GA: Georgie Horjus
WA: Maisie Nankivell
C: Hannah Petty
WD: Shadine van der Merwe
GD: Matilda Garrett
GK: Shamera Sterling

Photo credit: Will Russell