By Madeline Irwin
The Adelaide Thunderbirds were far too strong for the Queensland Firebirds on Saturday night, subjecting them to a 24-goal loss in front of a hearty Adelaide home crowd.
The affair was tight until the second half when the Thunderbirds leapt ahead by 14 goals, this was further extended when Adelaide doubled Queenslands' tally for the final quarter. Until that point, the Firebirds were trailing by three goals at both quarter and half-time.
For the Thunderbirds, it was a solid team performance that got them the win, lead by their co-captain Georgie Horjus. She notched up eight goals from ten attempts, to go with 17 goal assists, 16 centre pass receives and 27 feeds.
She continued her game transitioning from wing attack to goal attack during the game, allowing her coach Tania Obst to utilise her speed and agility.
It was from this point that Adelaide leapt ahead, after the Firebirds' defence, Kelly Jackson in particular, were able to hold their own in the first half.
Elmeré van der Berg was another big contributor, adding 51 goals to her season tally of 339. She was given the Player of the Match award for her performance, which included two goal assists, four feeds and an intercept.
After the match, she spoke about the synergy she has found with fellow shooter Horjus.
"She played really [well], it's a nice connection I have with Georgie in the circle and we compliment each other really well."
Despite being known as a two-point threat, van der Berg has not managed the heights that she did over in the UK league. As the year has progressed, the Thunderbirds are building their Suncorp Super Shot game, coach Tania Obst explained their process behind this and how they are working with their international shooter in her role.
"The two-point game is one that we are continually evolving and working with Kate (Heffernan) and Elmeré, [who] are new to our forward line," Obst said.
"We've been working on it all pre-season at training [and] we've played moments really well in the two-point time but we know that it's one that we want to keep exploring."
"I know Elmeré is itching to get out there and shoot some and I think our decision making around that, and when we did do that tonight, [that] was really good."
The battle of the Kiwi midcourters, Kate Heffernan and Maddy Gordon was an enthralling one, with both doing plenty for their sides during the evening.
Heffernan was the main avenue to the circle, with 35 feeds and 21 goal assists along with one intercept and two deflections.
Gordon was effective for her team, although was costly, racking up eight penalties herself, to go with 14 goal assists and 32 feeds.
In attack Mary Cholhok was their key figure, putting up 32 shots for 25 goals. She was also able to add five rebounds to her game.
She was assisted by Emily Moore when Te Paea Selby-Rickit was off court, however she was inaccurate, shooting just three goals from eight attempts.
A concern of Wills’ during the game, was the fitness of Selby-Rickit, who was managed during the contest due to an ongoing calf niggle. She contributed solidly despite this, shooting 14 from 15 shots, including three Suncorp Super Shots, in addition to an intercept.
The defensive line of the Firebirds was stretched, with head coach Kiri Wills’ players notching up 21 penalties combined. Captain Ruby Bakewell-Doran was not up to her usual standard, adding her own six general play turnovers to the team’s tally of 20.
Speaking post-match about her side's loss, Wills was honest about the second half fade-out
"In the end, we got comprehensively beaten across the court by a very good side tonight, we started the game really well [and] they are a tough opponent." she stated.
"We tried to make some adjustments around them from an attacking point of view but in every stat across the board we were comprehensively beaten tonight by a better team."
Selby-Rickit agreed with her coach, commenting on the momentum that the Thunderbirds had which proven impossible to stop.
"We started really well, there were some good patches in there, but they got a bit of momentum and they were able to score quite a few in a row, and that puts us on the back foot." Selby Rickit explained.
"Then we are trying to put up twos and not really playing the netball that we want to play, but the positive that we can take out of it was that there was some good stuff in the first half so we will have to just keep working on that and bringing it."
Adelaide will fly to Perth to take on the West Coast Fever on Friday night, while the Firebirds’ road trip continues to Victoria where they will face the Melbourne Vixens.
