West Coast showed they’re not yet at the level of the top two sides in Super Netball after falling in their grand final re-match against Melbourne Vixens.
The highly-anticipated clash fell below expectations, with the undefeated Vixens establishing themselves as premiership fancies with a 50-44 victory at RAC Arena on Sunday.
Fever went into the game with an imposing record at home, having won their past 10 matches at the venue.
But they looked anything but the classy outfit they’d become renowned for under coach Dan Ryan, playing sloppy netball under the pressure of the elite Melbourne outfit.
It took until the final term – when they scored 15 goals to eight – to compete with the visitors, having trailed by as much as 14 goals at the start of the quarter.
Fever’s only two defeats have come to the top two sides in Melbourne and Adelaide Thunderbirds, showing there is a clear gap between them and the best.
West Australian shooter Sophie Garbin produced a masterclass for Vixens with 36 goals from 40 attempts, while Kate Moloney ran rampant in centre with 30 feeds.
Fever had few answers, with wing attack Alice Teague-Neeld sorely missed for a second consecutive week with a back injury.
In Teague-Neeld’s absence, Fever struggled to find a connection with their shooters, going at only 57 per cent for centre pass to goal conversion.
Ryan tried everything across the four quarters to gain any sort of momentum, switching players around and even benching captain Jess Anstiss for the fourth quarter.
Fever fought back to get within touching distance, but had left too much for themselves to do and relied heavily on hitting super goals to close the gap.
Ryan lamented his team’s inability to execute the basics across the court, which led to his defence being overwhelmed.
“While the start wasn’t great, it wasn’t dire. It became a little bit frustrating as the game went on and unfolded. I don’t think we were handling what we needed to handle well enough,” he said.
“Our errors were way too high, our centre-pass conversion was nowhere near standard, and we were putting our defence under enormous pressure.
“Credit to our defenders, they were winning the ball back, but the ball they were winning back was quite often off our centre pass, and we were just going back-to-back turnovers, unable to execute at a standard that you need against a team like the Vixens.
“Frustrating, disappointing. It was a great finish to the game, but you can’t just have seven minutes of good quality and expect to get a win against a team like the Vixens, who are on song in all parts of their game.”
