By Stephanie Smarrelli
Grand finals are often decided by moments of brilliance, but the Adelaide Thunderbirds are hoping theirs will be won long before the first centre pass.
As the minor premiers prepare to meet the Melbourne Vixens in another Suncorp Super Netball decider, preparation has become more important than ever.
Thunderbirds’ defender Matilda Garrett is confident they’ve done the work to get the job done on Saturday night.
While it’s head coach Tania Obst who will be first to lift the trophy if the Thunderbirds prevail, Garrett recognises the work of another coach who has also been playing a crucial role.
"Our defensive coach, Cathy Fellows, the way she analyses the game and the game plan she and Tania come up with is a big strength,” Garrett said.
"We do a lot of analysis at the Thunderbirds which then translates to the really specific specialist work that we do on the court.
“Every team we play, we've practiced the different scenarios that might happen and we've also looked at certain movements of each opposition player.
“We do so much analysis as a team.”
For Garrett, that meticulous preparation has underpinned a season built on more than the talent of one or two individuals.
“Our greatest strength is our depth and versatility,” Garrett said.
Garrett believes the Thunderbirds' biggest strengths are their analysis work and versatility.
"We have so many players who can go in so many different positions.”
Despite beating the Vixens by 14 goals in the Major Semi Final, Garrett says the Thunderbirds are wary of becoming complacent.
“We want to go out there and play our brand of netball,” she said.
“Even though we won the last time we played the Vixens, we still had learnings from that game.
"The key area of focus for us is trying to put out a better performance than what we did last time to go out and win the game."
Central to those improvements will be maintaining the Thunderbirds' trademark defensive pressure from the opening whistle.
"We want to put our best foot forward,” Garrett said.
“Our game plan, especially defensively, is if we stick to it, we might end up winning more ball as the game goes on.
“We want to start strong and apply the pressure from the get-go, that will be our focus.”
According to Garrett that defensive blueprint begins by stopping the Vixens’ polished attack end.
Garrett knows it'll be tough to shut down the Vixens' attack this weekend.
“The Vixens move the ball quite quickly, they’re a well-drilled team,” she said.
“For us defensively, we'll be focusing on slowing down the pace of the ball and trying to disrupt the connections and the players that they are trying to constantly pass to.
“If we can change their timing then we can try to set up some intercepts.”
A Grand Final against the Vixens - who they defeated to claim the title in 2024 - presents a familiar challenge for the Thunderbirds.
"That finals experience against them is invaluable,” Garrett said.
“But we're a slightly different side to what we were in 2024 and so are the Vixens.
“We've played them a lot over the last three seasons; we'll take the learnings from our finals matches with them as well as the other games into Saturday.”
While preparation may be the foundation of the Thunderbirds’ success, Garrett believes the club's recruits have given the side even more ways to execute their game plan.
“El’s stats speak for themselves,” Garrett said.
“She's a big target underneath the ring, she’s extremely athletic, her ability to move and to jump has been a strong asset to our team.
Garrett commended the work of 2026 recruit, Elmeré van der Berg.
"We know when she gets the ball in her hands, she's just going to put it through the ring.
“Then Kate is an engine.
“She just keeps running and running through the midcourt.
“Her ability to attack but also to position herself in defence to get hands on the ball to win ball through the midcourt has been a standout.”
The return of Shamera Sterling-Humphrey has also added another dimension to the Thunderbird’s defensive unit.
“It's almost like she never left,” Garrett said.
“She's been playing some amazing netball and credit to her doing it whilst being a mum and probably not getting as much sleep as she wants to and things like that.
“She's awesome to play with and we've added some more tools to our toolkit this season, it's been awesome having her back.”
By earning a direct path to the Grand Final for the third time under Obst, Garrett and her teammates have been able to stick to a familiar finals routine.
“We've been lucky enough to go straight through to the Grand Final again,” she said.
Garrett won back-to-back premierships with the Thunderbirds in 2023 and 2024.
“So last week and this week are a little familiar to us in terms of we've worked out what works for us and what doesn't work for us.
“It's been nice to have a couple of extra days off over the last week and a half.”
Having defended a premiership herself, Garrett understands the pressure the Vixens face this week.
But she expects both teams will be focused solely on the task at hand come Saturday.
"Anyone making a grand final is going out there to win,” she said.
“You're not necessarily thinking about what happened the year before.
“We're all super competitive, we always match up really well against the Vixens... I'm really excited for a great game.
“Hopefully we start well and take the learnings from last time we played and implement those and then the results look after themselves.”
For all the preparation that has gone into the Thunderbirds’ premiership defence, Saturday will also bring a personal moment for Garrett, who returns to her hometown of for the biggest game of the season.
“It's super exciting,” she said.
“I know a lot of the Thunderbirds fans are going to travel across, that's something that really stood out to me in 2023 was the amount of people that actually drove or flew across to support us.
“But I grew up in Melbourne so it's really nice for all my family, I'm going to have a big group of them all there to support the Thunderbirds and myself.”
Tune into the 2026 Suncorp Super Netball Grand Final live and on demand on Kayo Freebies, Foxtel and BINGE.
