Fever Struck by Lightning

Fever have come away second best after their first match up against new Suncorp Super Netball franchise, Sunshine Coast Lightning, last Friday night at HBF Stadium.

Having defeated the New South Wales Swifts just one week earlier, the West Coast Fever were unable to maintain their winning ways, the score board reading 49 to 66 at the final whistle.

It was clear that the match was going to be hard fought right from the first whistle, the Lightning stopping several of the West Coast sides attacking efforts in the first quarter alone.

This pressure continued into the second quarter, giving the visitors a 15 goal lead heading into the half time break.

The break proved to be advantageous for the Fever with the side returning to the court ready to fight harder both in attack and defence.

These efforts did not go unnoticed as they began making inroads on the scoreboard, backed by an enthusiastic home crowd.

Fever found their momentum halted part way through the third term however, as centre court Ingrid Colyer was forced from the court through injury. 

A positional reshuffle allowed defender, Annika Lee-Jones to make her West Coast Fever debut matching up against former Fever goal shooter Caitlin Bassett.

With continued hard fought efforts from the home side, they were able to finish the third quarter having scored an equal amount of goals to the Sunshine Coast Lightning, their best quarter for the game.

A strong start to the final term showed promise for the Fever as centre courter Verity Charles made a series of successful feeds into goal shooter, Nat Medhurst.

Unfortunately these efforts were in vain, the home side falling by 17 goals at the final whistle.

Fever Head Coach, Stacey Marinkovich said “it was a series of basic errors tonight that let us down, we were able to disrupt their attack, but if you are going to work so hard to get the ball you have to put them under pressure at the other end and we failed to do that.”

“As a group we can take positives from this performance but it will also serve as a reality check on the areas of our game that still require work.”

The West Coast Fever now turn their attention to this Saturday’s clash against the Adelaide Thunderbirds at Perth Arena.

Having gone down to the Thunderbirds as a result of a poor fourth quarter in the first round of the season, the Western Australian’s will be looking to redeem themselves and earn their second win for the season. 

During their second match at the Perth Arena for the season, the West Coast Fever will make history, playing underneath an open roof.

This will be the first time in the world that a netball match has been played in a stadium with the roof open.

The match is scheduled to commence this Saturday evening at 5:45pm.