Melbourne Vixens showed why they’re the benchmark team in the trans Tasman netball competition with a powerful 74-49 win over the rising West Coast Fever at Perth’s Challenge Stadium.
With Sharelle McMahon (40-of-47) and Caitlin Thwaites (29-of-34) dominant in attack, the unbeaten Vixens cruised to a 23-goal triumph in the seventh round clash with the highest score of the season.
“We are always wary of anybody we play and everybody seems to like playing us. They had been playing well over the last couple of weeks, so we knew we had to bring our A-game away with us and we did that beautifully,” Vixens coach Julie Hoornweg said.
“Sharelle was sensational and it was her best game of the year. She has been threatening to play like that and Caitlin at the back is gaining confidence every time she plays. Now that they have that connection, they are playing great netball.”
After three straight wins, the Fever went down to the Queensland Firebirds last Monday in a loss star Bianca Franklin blamed on the referees, but bouncing back against the ANZ Championship-leading Vixens was beyond them despite a sellout crowd of 3247.
Caitlin Bassett was strong with 41 goals for the Fever, but Franklin struggled before going off and West Coast succumbed to Melbourne’s pressure.
The Vixens threatened to open up a commanding lead in the first half but a 7-1 run by the Fever midway through the second quarter after Josie Janz was benched, Johannah Curran moved to goal defence and Andrea Gilmore came on closed things up.
However, McMahon and Melbourne hit back to lead 34-28 at half time.
Janz returned for the Fever after the break to replace Susan Fuhrmann on McMahon, while the Vixens replaced Brooke Thompson with Chelsey Nash, and Melbourne broke the game open with a 9-1 run to quickly lead by 14.
By the last quarter, that ballooned out to 26 ahead as they proved far too strong all over the court.
Fever coach Jane Searle was disappointed the team couldn’t perform, but is still confident of a strong season after a bye.
“To have a sellout crowd here was fantastic, but we are just a bit sorry that we didn’t give them a better game,” Searle said.
“We can still beat them though. We really had a bad second half and are a lot better than that. We’ll certainly bounce back and it might be a timely lesson because we might have felt like we were cruising. We need our game faces on next time out against the Thunderbirds.”
West Coast (3-4) have the bye next weekend before home matches against the Adelaide Thunderbirds and Southern Steel, while Melbourne (6-0) hosts the NSW Swifts and Queensland Firebirds the next two weeks.
Vixens vs Swifts. Image courtesy of Joseph Sirucka.
Vixens vs Swifts. Image courtesy of Joseph Sirucka.
Vixens vs Swifts. Image courtesy of Joseph Sirucka.
Vixens vs Swifts. Image courtesy of Joseph Sirucka.
Vixens' Julie Corletto. Image courtesy of Joseph Sirucka.
Vixens' Sharelle McMahon, right. Image courtesy of Joseph Sirucka
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