The Queensland Firebirds player Laura Geitz poses with their trophy following their win in the ANZ Netball championship final between the Northern Mystics from New Zealand and the Queensland Firebirds at Convention Centre in Brisbane, Sunday, May 22, 2011. (AAP Image/Dave Hunt)
The Queensland Firebirds took out the ANZ Championship grand final last night with the help of an explosive third quarter, beating the Northern Mystics 57-44.
The Firebirds became the first team in the ANZ Championship to accomplish a perfect season by remaining unbeaten all year. Their 13-goal grand final winning margin saw them win the ANZ Championship in its fourth year of competition.
Stand-in captain Laura Geitz was proud: “We’ve gone through and done something that no other team’s done and we’ll celebrate that… it’s a huge achievement,” Geitz said.
Both the Firebirds and the Mystics came into the grand final having never played in a final series, but the lack of finals’ experience was far from missing from the first whistle.
Despite the efforts and turnover created by Laura Geitz in the first quarter, the Mystics contested every ball to keep the New Zealanders in the match. Scores were locked at 12-12 each at the first break, with the second quarter telling a similar story, as Firebirds’ GA Natalie Medhurst predicted.
“I think you’re always going to expect it to be close for the first and second quarters, they made mistakes and so did we and you expect that when you put two quality sides together,” Medhurst said.
Medhurst was smart to respect her opposition as she worked tirelessly with her fellow attack line in Chelsea Pitman (WA) and Elissa Macleod (c) to hurl fantastic feeds into the reliable hands and shot of Romelda Aiken, who in the end, was named player of the match. No wonder.
The Mystics did take the lead momentarily in the second term by two goals, but their lead was short-lived when the Firebirds closed the margin and capitalised turnover ball to enter the third quarter two goals ahead 26-24.
But the game was won in a crucial moment in the third quarter, which was according to Mystics coach, Debbie Fuller “going into the third minute of the third quarter”. Fuller admitted this to be the turning point of the match, being when time was called to re-jig her defensive line in an attempt to manage her goal defense Kayla Cullen’s cramping calf muscle.
“We didn’t know whether to take her off and put her back on in the fourth (quarter) or to leave her on and get as much as we could from her,” said Fuller.
“Credit to them, they took full advantage of us… They got a few turnovers, we made a few errors and that’s all it comes down to,” Fuller said.
While changes to the Mystics line up unsettled the side, half-time changes made by Firebirds’ coach Roselee Jencke were spot on.
Jencke moved wing defence Keirra Tromf to the bench, moving Clare McMeniman from goal defence to the wing and bringing on Amy Steel to goal defence to lift the home-team’s intensity.
The third-quarter romp lasted 5-6 minutes before the Mystics were able to readjust. But it was too late, the Firebirds shot ahead by 7 goals in the blink of an eye. It was Medhurst that led the charge to take full advantage of the disrupted Mystics combination.
“I think we were only up by 3 goals when Kayla called that time and they did re-jig it (the Mystics line-up) but I think it was great because it opened up Romelda [Aiken] a lot more and she was a lot easier to spot up against [Rachel] Rasmussen. That made it a lot easier in our feeds,” Medhurst said.
Medhurst and Aiken were all class as they helped steam-roll the home side to a 12-goal lead at three-quarter time, 44-33. And captain Geitz was impressed: “We’re a team that’s capable of scoring quickly and the way that Nat and the girls fed Romelda tonight was just amazing to watch,” Geitz said.
“I think we all agree that the 3rd quarter is the championship quarter and that’s when you really need to get out there and push it out and everybody stood up”.
“We really ran away with it in the 3rd quarter and put ourselves in a position going into that last quarter,” Geitz said.
Could the Mystics salvage the 12-goal deficit in the final quarter?
“We needed to believe that we could run down a 10 goal lead and that was wavering going into that fourth quarter,” Fuller said.
Sportz
Guest
This one better? http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/8443/2011grandfinal18.jpg Incredible trophy that one. I'm surprised it hasn't taken someone's eyes out by now!!!
PeterK
Guest
Hearty congratulations, girls. I hardly missed a minute of the final on TEN. (PS. I'm a Fury Fan Forever, but I'm happy enough to follow the Roar as well, and now yourselves too!)
Sportz
Guest
"Netball: ANZ Championship 2011 Live Ten 140,000 54,000 31,000 42,000 9,000 5,000" Thanks for that. It was also shown on ONE HD at the same time. Do you have any idea what it rated there?
Sportz
Guest
That $12,000 is just for the rookies and bench players, but yeah, it's still not good. The combined salary cap for an entire ANZ Championship team is about the same as the annual salary of one good but not outstanding AFL or NRL player. Mind you, it has actually come a long way in Australia. Back in the old national league days (which was only 4 years ago), most players used to play for virtually nothing and in fact the very top players back then only earned around about that $12,000 mark. Here are a couple of articles to give people some idea of how things are..... http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/sport/firebirds-not-quitting-their-day-jobs-20110523-1f0ea.html?from=brisbanetimes_sb http://www.couriermail.com.au/sport/firebirds-formula-peanuts-and-professionalism/story-e6frep5o-1226059964337
David Lord
Guest
Sarah, congratulations on an excellent preview-review of the netball final, a sport shabbily treated by the media, and lacking in sponsors. To think those superb athletes are competing at an elite level for $12,000 is a national disgrace. Something must be done to correct a dreadful wrong, the girls deserve so much more, not only in contract money, but recognition.
slickwilly
Guest
swans v hawks got 33000 plus whilst roosters v knights got 10000 plus - this game of compare and contrast is fun
Titus
Guest
Netball: ANZ Championship 2011 Live Ten 140,000 54,000 31,000 42,000 9,000 5,000 54 000 in Sydney, Swans got 49 000.
The Cattery
Roar Guru
It doesn't matter does it? Well don to the netballers either way.
Sportz
Guest
How do you know? What were the figures? There's a TV ratings site I look at but I couldn't find a mention for the netball at all. I thought hardly anyone must have watched it. It got good coverage on all the commercial news bulletins here in Qld.
Moonface
Roar Guru
Well done firebirds and Queensland and Brisbane sport. SoO champs, A-League champs and now national netball champs - really is the best sporting state in Australia. Tom, its not that hard to outrate the Swans on TV these days - they usually come last in the ratings anyway.
Tom
Guest
Well done to netball out rating the swans on tv in sydney -- Comment left via The Roar's iPhone app. Download The Roar's iPhone App in the App Store here.
paulski
Guest
Absolutely horrendous coverage of the finals in the media, with the exception of Channel 10 and their weekly matches. Everyone else? Hang your heads in shame. And congrats to the Firebirds - well deserved, girls!
Lost Earthling
Guest
Fantastic game and great effort by the girls to win. I thought Medhurst turned the game around in the third quarter when she took control of getting the ball into the shooting circle and threw the long bombs to Aitken. Hopefully Natalie Medhurst realises QLD is the best state in the world to live and hangs around a few years longer. From what I have been hearing from a few season ticket holders I know they weren't given their usual seating and ended up with some of the worst seats in the house, especially when the awards were given and all the corporate bigwigs got placed in front of them, so hopefully Netball Qld can fix that next year and support the ticketholders who supported the firebirds all season long instead of pandering to the dollars.
Johnno
Guest
Wow some beautiful women play proffessional Netball in Australia. They should do a promotional calander to raise awerness for Netball, which will then promote increased crowds and sponsorship.
Goldfish
Guest
What an awkward looking photo.
Nathan
Guest
Good job, Firebirds, keeping the trophy in Aus again, sterling performance this year; wish the Fever could keep up with you!
jorge rodriguez
Guest
The best sporting team in Australia, a role model for future teams.
jorge rodriguez
Guest
Congratulaions to the best sporting team in Australia.