A dominant third quarter by the West Coast Fever condemned the NSW Swifts to back-to-back losses for the first time this year in Round 4 of Suncorp Super Netball at Ken Rosewall Arena on Sunday (57-77).
The game was in the balance at halftime with just five goals between the sides, but former Swift Romelda Aiken-George came back to haunt her old team with a fine showing in the goal circle as the Fever made every gain count and NSW were left to rue the ones they missed.
Aiken-George was the perfect target all afternoon for the Fever, scoring 67 of her side’s 77 goals and taking the match MVP award to boot.
The 21-10 third quarter had the Swifts 16 goals in arrears ahead of the last period and while there were positives - most notably their first quarter showing and some beautiful interplay from the likes of Grace Whyte, Gina Crampton and Maddy Proud - they couldn’t stem the tide and now fall to 1-3 after four rounds.
The Fever also won the final quarter 21-17 but by then the Swifts had thrown caution to the wind and needed to take big risks to try and make inroads into their opponents’ advantage.
Having played in back-to-back one-goal thrillers against the Lightning and Mavericks, this was step down for the serial Premiership contenders and one where the Swifts were their own worst enemies.
They had 15 unforced turnovers compared to the Fever’s eight, while they also had 17 general play turnovers compared to the West Australians' eight.
It all started very positively, however.
Fantastic defence in all areas of the court got the Swifts off to a rollicking start and they led 11-4 on the back of converting three bonus turnover possessions.
Despite Sarah Klau being ruled out with a quad complaint, NSW started with a pace that the Fever found hard to live with.
Every time the visitors looked to flood the midcourt the Swifts provided extra options with Helen Housby and Whyte adding equally to attack and defence.
Grace Nweke was in brilliant form in the goal circle early, but when she missed a shot the resultant turnover gave West Coast the window they needed to get back into the game.
That error was compounded by another miss and a held ball call against Whyte meaning before long the Fever were back on level terms.
The second quarter was an intensely physical affair with Nweke under a barrage of pressure from Kadie-Ann Dehaney. The sides traded goals for the majority of the period but it was the Fever who started to look more comfortable in possession.
Neither team scored a Super Shot in the first half but the Fever’s ability to convert their gains from Swifts misses started to give them an edge.
Aiken-George was under pressure from Teigan O’Shannassy but she positioned herself well to keep the Fever rolling on the scoreboard and into a five-goal lead at halftime (30-35).
Failure to convert their opening centre passes of the second half suddenly had the Swifts 10 goals down in the blink of an eye and from there Fever we in full control.
Despite the loss the Swifts remain well in the hunt and one win outside the top four but they’ll need to regroup quickly ahead the reigning champion Melbourne Vixens’ visit next weekend.
