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What promised to be a see-sawing, tightly contested match between the top two Australian teams in this year’s ANZ Netball Championship became a one-sided display by the 2009 premiers Melbourne Vixens.
The Victorian team exploited speed through the mid court, mounting an impenetrable defensive wall.
They capitalised on the Adelaide Thunderbirds’ poor circle feeding and put on a clinical display, thrashing the stunned South Australian team.
Once again, the Vixens’ all-star defensive unit of stalwarts Julie Corletto and Bianca Chatfield and English star Geva Mentor dominated play by holding up the Thunderbirds’ ball speed.
They successfully smothered the quick ball going into Jamaican scoring machine, Carla Borrego.
Thunderbird goal attack Erin Bell, an Australian Diamonds representative, was poor, with physical pressure from veteran Chatfield disrupting her free-flowing, slick movement.
While Bell struggled, Vixens goal attack Tegan Caldwell was mighty.
The Adelaide defensive unit was not able to apply the same sort of pressure on their Vixens opponents, with Caldwell shooting a perfect 17 from 17 in the first half.
The linking play and ability to find space within their attacking circle of Vixens pair Caldwell and goal-shooter Kate Beveridge proved unstoppable.
Beveridge provided moving options up forward, and smothered the ball coming out of her own attacking end.
She showed the sort of hunger that proved the difference between the two sides.
Super-sub Karyn Howarth was injected in place of rising star Caldwell, to add a different dimension to a game already well within the Vixens’ grasp.
She proved as much a handful for a Thunderbirds side, who themselves made a number of changes in the closing stages of the match.
Players for the Adelaide team were found wanting from early in the match.
The usual precision feeding of Nat Von Bertouch and Emily Beaton was absent, as they uncharacteristically turned the ball over on numerous occasions.
Adelaide coach Jane Woodlands-Thompson had no answers for a Melbourne Vixens team that were simply too fast, too strong, and hungrier for a win.
They have cemented their place at the top of the ladder after three rounds.
This Melbourne team of 2012 has sounded a warning to all other teams in the competition for this season.
Underestimate them at your own peril.