The NSW Swifts and Giants are locked, loaded and ready to light up Ken Rosewall Arena on Saturday night for the teams’ first meeting of the 2023 Suncorp Super Netball season.
The local Derby, which has become a staple of the Sydney sporting scene since the Giants were formed in 2017, will be the League’s biggest game of the regular season so far with around 7,000 fans expected to attend the Round 7 headline act, which will also be home game for the Giants.
As the regular season reaches the halfway point the Swifts sit third on the competition ladder, while the Giants are sixth but only one win outside the playoff spots.
In keeping with every competitive fixture played between the sides, tomorrow night the Swifts and Giants will also do battle for the Carole Sykes Trophy.
The Trophy has been contested 14 times since 2017 across 12 regular-season clashes and two Finals games with the Swifts claiming it nine times to the Giants’ five.
NSW head coach Briony Akle says the team has embraced the rivalry and how quickly it’s grown.
“I think I said in the run-up to the 2021 Grand Final that the presence of the Giants has probably pushed the Swifts on to a new level, given we are no longer the only team in town, and think that still rings true.
“It’s going to be a very noisy arena on Saturday night and that is the kind of atmosphere that you want to be a part of. There are always fireworks when we play them.
“They are a team that don’t let you get out of jail if you put yourself under pressure. Not only do they have great targets in the circle, they are the best team in the competition when it comes to the Super Shot. There is no side in the League better at delivering a knock-out shot early on than the Giants.
“As Paige (Hadley, Swifts co-captain) said to the media earlier today, you can go from second to seventh very quickly this year and it is definitely the tightest competition the National League has ever known – and I’m going back to the days of the Commonwealth Trophy and trans-Tasman Championship.
“It doesn’t matter if they have less wins on the board or not, the Giants are the only team to have knocked over the Adelaide Thunderbirds this year – and they did it on the road which highlights what they’re capable of.”
While paying the Giants their due respect, Akle was also eager to highlight the strengths of her players, who are coming off back-to-back one-goal wins over the Sunshine Coast Lightning and Melbourne Vixens.
“We had to show plenty of bottle over the past two weeks, especially in how we came back against the Vixens when we looked dead and buried in the third quarter,” she said.
“The Lightning game was perhaps the best game of netball I’ve seen in a long time, but against the Vixens we had too many patches where we went missing.
“But we picked ourselves up off the canvas and ground out the result. To win, even when not playing at your optimum is a good sign, but it also doesn’t allow you to get ahead of yourself.
“However, I do think the past two weeks have served as a reminder to core of our group, who’ve won two Premierships in recent years, that they are still those players who can read a game brilliantly and problem solve when the heat comes on.
“Mindset plays a huge role at the pointy end of pro-sport and it’s no different in our game.”
The Round 7 clash takes place at 7pm (AEST) tomorrow night. It will be broadcast live and free on Kayo Freebies, while Foxtel subscribers can also tune in via Fox Sports.
Match Notes
- When the teams last met in Round 8 last season, the Swifts claimed a 52-43 win.
- The Swifts lead head-to-head with eight wins, the Giants five and one draw in the 14 previous Suncorp Super Netball meetings between the teams.
- The Swifts have won three of the past four meetings between the teams.
- Ten of the 14 previous meetings between the Swifts and Giants have been decided by five goals or less or drawn.
- The Swifts are coming off a 67-66 win over the Vixens in Round 6 and have a record of three wins, a draw and two losses to sit in third place on the ladder.
- The Swifts have won all of their three matches in 2023 after trailing at three quarter time.
- The Giants are coming off a 66-70 loss to the Firebirds in Round 6 and have a record of two wins and four losses to sit in sixth place on the ladder.
- Swifts midcourter Tayla Fraser will play her 50th match for the Swifts in Round 7.
- The Swifts have sat inside the Super Netball Top 4 after the past two rounds, they were in fourth place after Round 6 and sit in third place after last round.
- The Giants have not been inside the Super Netball Top 4 after any round this season, they were in seventh place after Rounds 1 to 4 and then in sixth place after Rounds 5 and 6.
- The Swifts won back-to-back matches for the first time this season, beating the Lightning and Vixens by one goal in consecutive rounds.
- The Swifts’ one-goal win over the Vixens in Round 6 is their 10th Super Netball on-goal win in 96 Super Netball matches since 2017.
- The Swifts’ best quarter this season is their fourth quarter winning five of their six completed matches.
- The Swifts’ second quarter is the team’s worst in 2023 but they won their first second quarter against the Vixens in Round 6 for a record of one win and five losses.’
- The Giants haven’t won a second half quarter in their past two matches losing three quarters and drawing one.
- The Giants have only won two matches so far in 2023 but three of their four losses have been by five goals or less.
