By Madeline Irwin
The Adelaide Thunderbirds ground out a close win against the Melbourne Mavericks by four goals at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre on Sunday afternoon.
The close loss in Adelaide keeps the Mavericks in fourth position on the ladder, with four games to go in the season.
Not unlike the previous encounter, both the teams were poised for a win at three-quarter time.
The game was a see-sawing affair, with two distinct halves defined by momentum wings within quarters by both teams. The Thunderbirds won the first half on the scoreboard, taking a three and six goal lead into each of the first two quarters respectively.
The Mavericks came hard in the final two quarters, keeping the home side to just 22 goals to close out the game.
Melbourne will be ruing the opportunity to beat the Thunderbirds, considering their position on the ladder.
The Thunderbirds mid-courter Kate Heffernan alongside defenders co-captain Shamera Sterling-Humphrey and Latanya Wilson were crucial to their success.
Wilson (12 centre pass receives, two intercepts and nine deflections) was a force, partnering Sterling-Humphrey in the latter stages of the contest. She was also influential herself, taking four intercepts and 11 deflections.
Heffernan continues to be a shrewd recruit, playing 100 per cent time on court in centre, racking up 28 feeds, an intercept and two deflections.
Although quiet in the second half, Elmeré van der Berg was very accurate, posting 47 from 49 shots on the night. Thunderbirds coach Tania Obst was forced into making changes within the circle, with all players taking to the court, particularly through the mid-court and attacking lines.
For the Mavericks, it was their defensive line that stood up, putting massive amounts of pressure onto the Thunderbirds attack. Jessie Grenvold continues to revel in the opportunity to start in goalkeeper, notching up three intercepts and a deflection.
Kim Brown and Charlotte Sexton partnered her well, keeping the physical pressure on van der Berg and Lauren Frew particularly.
Shimona Nelson shot her 23 goals from 26 shots, making the work count from further down the court. When Nelson was paired with Sacha McDonald (six goals from nine shots) and Uneeq Palavi (11 goals at 100 per cent), the Mavericks attack looked its most dangerous.
Jamie-Lee Price put in her usual industrious game, contributing 13 goal assists to go with 34 feeds and three deflections. Her game improved as the match went on, with three general play turnovers in the first quarter.
The game was a defensively minded contest, with the teams entering the match at the top of the statistics tally for deflections and intercepts.
In the end, it was the first half that Melbourne put up, that cost them the game. The Mavericks had six more general play turnovers (21) and five more penalties (59) at the end of the game, which was less than the gap between the teams at half-time.
When asked about his side's performance, Mavericks head coach Gerard Murphy was brutally honest.
"[It was a combination of] fatigue, [being] undisciplined and skill execution [as well as the] loss of the gameplan, that's probably the main stuff [that cost us] but that's throughout the [whole] game," Murphy stated.
"It was not just when we were winning, in the last quarter we weren't playing that well or executing that well but we were finding a way to get through, which is good because we've been getting better at winning ugly as well anyway.
"That's an important part too, but probably just working out the combinations, we didn't really get there in the end."
The Adelaide Thunderbirds will travel to Sydney to face the GIANTS next week, while the Melbourne Mavericks host the Sunshine Coast Lightning in a must-win encounter for both sides' finals aspirations.
