By Madeline Irwin
The Adelaide Thunderbirds put their premiership credentials on show on Saturday night, defeating the NSW Swifts by twenty goals at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre.
The win capped off a night of milestones for the Thunderbirds celebrating their 30th anniversary as a club, alongside co-captain Shamera Sterling-Humphrey's return from maternity leave.
The Swifts were not without their motivation on the night, with former captain Maddy Proud returning to the side after the birth of her daughter and captain Maddy Turner celebrating her 150th league game.
In the end, the affair was lop-sided after half time, with the Thunderbirds taking control after a fightback by the Swifts forged after quarter time.
The new faces for the Thunderbirds had immediate impact, featuring in the starting side in the contest. Coming from the Superleague in the UK, where she was the top scorer in the competition, Elmeré van der Berg was brought into the side to partner with Lauren Frew.
The attacking circle duo went to work in the first quarter, resulting in a strong start from the home side with van der Berg adding 11 goals at 100 per cent accuracy in the first eight minutes.
She went on score 59 goals from 62 shots in the contest, setting the record for the most goals by a Thunderbird in a game.
After the first four minutes, with the teams going goal for goal, the Thunderbirds had a hot run to pull ahead of the shaken Swifts by six goals. This start was characterised by Adelaide having only one general play turnover, compared to the Swifts’ four.
In the middle, new Thunderbird Kate Heffernan was also crucial to their clinical first quarter slotting in at centre, the role vacated by outgoing club captain Hannah Petty.
Heffernan’s leadership and experience at the level were evident, contributing to the Swifts ringing in the changes at quarter time.
Sharni Lambden was swapped into goal defence to quell the influence of Frew, who despite not shooting the volume that she’s accustomed to, was influencing the contest through her movement and feeds which drew attention from van der Berg. O’Shannassy was also subbed on try and thwart the hot hand of the Thunderbirds' goal shooter.
Briony Akle’s Swifts roared back into the contest during a strong second quarter, with former club captain Maddy Proud returning to the league after the birth of her daughter last year.
Proud was tasked with asserting more physicality on Heffernan with effect, with the Swifts outscoring Adelaide by one goal in the second quarter, courtesy of Grace Nweke’s 24 goals from 25 shots.
Nweke’s partnership with Grace Whyte out in front resulted in seven goal assists and ten feeds in the second quarter.
From halfway through the second quarter onwards, Thunderbirds coach Tania Obst pulled out a masterstroke, sending her playmaker Georgie Horjus into the shooting circle, resulting a 22 to eleven goal third quarter to stun the Swifts. The 22 points piled on by the Thunderbirds was an all-time record score in a quarter in the club’s history.
Their dominance continued through to the end of the match finishing with 15 more goals in the second half.
When asked post-match about the influence of van der Berg and Heffernan, Obst was nothing but complimentary.
"I think they are two very, very good netballers, very classy and we’ve got great skillsets around them as well and they are really complimenting one another," she said.
"That’s probably the thing that pleases me the most, it’s about when you put a team together, it’s not just about going and getting names, it’s about putting the pieces together.
"What we were able to do by including Kate and Elmeré in the team last year has just added [more] skillsets that we were lacking or wanting to move forward in."
