Madeline Irwin
It was a game that went down to the wire as the Adelaide Thunderbirds snuck over the line against the Sunshine Coast Lightning at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre on Saturday night.
The ANZAC Day match, was a see-sawing affair initially, with the Lightning coming strong out of the blocks with 16 goals to the Thunderbirds’ 11 in the first quarter. The script was flipped on the visitors in the second, with the home side registering 20 goals to 13.
The third quarter was a thriller, with Adelaide edging ahead by a solitary goal despite scoring one less goal than the Sunshine Coast. To close out the contest, both sides scored 16 goals to see the Thunderbirds take another win.
Overall, it was a battle of the midcourt, with the keys to shutting down the Thunderbirds’ being the physicality of defence on co-captain Georgie Horjus. She lifted her side in the second quarter after being kept quiet by her opposing defenders, Mahalia Cassidy and Ava Black.
For Adelaide it was their international shooter Elmeré van der Berg that continued to have a big impact, scoring 57 goals from 61 attempts.
New Zealand international Kate Heffernan took home the Vivian Bullwinkel Medal as Player of the Match. She had 105 Nissan Net Points, 15 goal assists, 23 feeds and four intercepts.
Her role was instrumental in the win, assisting Horjus to deal with the additional attention, while providing her team with her drive and athleticism all game.
Horjus was more effective again in the third and final quarters with the introduction of Tayla Williams into wing attack. This meant Horjus could get more space from her opponents but also her chemistry as a duo with Williams was imperative for her side.
Post-game Heffernan provided insight into what her role is in the side, especially when Horjus is receiving more attention from the opposition.
"She's such a dominant attacking player, we do know that teams will be picking that up," she said.
"It's just having that awareness that I need to be able to take the load when teams are looking and really trying to shut her down because realistically, that's what they are going to do when you are that dominant."
"Georgie is great, somehow she still just lets it work when you can tell that the defensive unit is targeting her, so when I'm able to do my job and make them have to worry about me as well as an attacking player, that's really massive for making sure Georgie can still do her job."
"I'm absolutely loving playing with her, I don't know how she does it but she manages to make it look pretty easy so [my role] is to just support her."
Leesa Mi Mi was influential for the Lightning, notching up 20 goal assists, 24 centre pass receives to go with 32 feeds. She was an important figure in the team’s passage to goal, holding down the wing attack position so that Liz Watson could stay in centre.
Koenen continues to solidify her role at goal attack after years of playing shooter predominantly, she was able to continue to connect the midcourt with Wallam, which was hard for the Thunderbirds to get on top of.
Donnell Wallam was the main avenue to goal for the Lightning, scoring her 47 goals at 89 per cent accuracy.
After the match, head coach Belinda Reynolds spoke about her role in the 'new-look' shooting circle and her performance against Adelaide.
"Cara has made some good adjustments, each and every round, her and 'Nells' (Wallam) combination, is certainly growing week to week," Reynolds said.
'Nells' is that strong target there, Cara did a good job at injecting when she needed to and we've really got that moving circle up our sleeve as well."
"'Nelly' did a really good job of holding and getting some bits of ball against the two talls tonight."
Shamera Sterling-Humphrey was unable to finish out the game, with coach Tania Obst stating post-game that the star defender was unwell leading into the match.
Next week, both sides will play at home, with the Thunderbirds hosting the Firebirds, while the Lightning will play the Fever.
