By Stephanie Smarrelli
The Melbourne Vixens are through to the Grand Final and will face the Adelaide Thunderbirds next weekend at Melbourne’s John Cain Arena with their dream of back-to-back premierships within reach.
Roared on by a crowd of 7,383, the Vixens booked their place in the decider with a commanding 62-51 Preliminary Final victory against the West Coast Fever.
Both teams started clinically, trading goals before Rudi Ellis produced the first breakthrough with a well-timed deflection. It proved the catalyst for the Vixens with their defensive prowess quickly taking control of the contest.
Ellis and Jo Weston combined in defence, while Kate Moloney and Kate Eddy suffocated Fever's midcourt, disrupting the visitors' attacking rhythm.
At the other end, Sophie Garbin and Kiera Austin kept the scoreboard ticking over as the Vixens steadily built their lead.
With momentum firmly in the Vixens' favour, Fever head coach Dan Ryan called an early timeout, but it did little to stem the tide. A series of missed opportunities under the post allowed the Vixens to capitalise and take a six-goal lead into the first break.
The second quarter followed a similar pattern. Sasha Glasgow came up with an important defensive touch, but Fever were unable to convert the gain, much to the delight of the John Cain Arena crowd.
The Vixens continued to squeeze Fever defensively, with Ellis' footwork particularly impressive as she repeatedly disrupted feeds into Romelda Aiken-George.
Ruth Aryang produced a timely deflection during the Power Five, which Aiken-George converted before Glasgow nailed consecutive Suncorp Super Shots to narrow the margin.
Despite those moments, Fever struggled to generate consistent attacking ball, finishing the opening half with a centre pass-to-goal rate of just 62 per cent while managing only the one gain.
Fever continued to attack but the Vixens were too good.
The Vixens had well and truly stamped their authority by half time leading by nine goals with Garbin adding an exclamation point right on half time as she slotted a layup.
Aiken-George tried to fire up her teammates early in the third term with her own layup served to her via a bullet pass from Teague-Neeld but the Vixens continued to surge.
Fever bookend Aiken-George attempted to spark Fever early in the third quarter, converting a lay-up after a bullet pass from Alice Teague-Neeld, but the Vixens continued to surge.
When the margin stretched to 12 goals, Ryan made another defensive change — his fourth of the match. The adjustment paid immediate dividends as Kadie-Ann Dehaney collected Fever's first gain in the defensive end of the court before the Power Five, and the visitors converted.
Aiken-George reached another remarkable milestone by scoring her 10,000th national league goal.
Despite some strong passages of play from Fever the Vixens didn't relinquish control extending their lead to 17 goals by the final change.
Fever mounted one last challenge in the opening minutes of the fourth quarter, capitalising on defensive gains from Fran Williams and Dehaney to trim the margin.
Di Honey responded with a timeout introducing Emily Mannix, who had an immediate impact with an intercept to halt Fever's momentum.
Fever's Liv Wilkinson helped reduce the deficit during the final Power Five, but the comeback came too late as the Vixens sealed an emphatic 11-goal victory to book their place in the Grand Final.
Post match, Vixens head coach Di Honey praised her side's performance.
The Vixens have earned their shot at back-to-back premierships.
"We had a really good training week, a good vibe was there," Di Honey said.
"I felt tonight they would go out and produce that sort of netball that has been missing for a couple of weeks.
"It was so good to see the real connection on court, the delivery and execution was so much better than it has been, I'm absolutely rapt we've made the Grand Final."
Meanwhile, Fever's head coach Ryan admitted his side fell short on the night but took pride in their season.
"For us to get so close, it wasn't our day today, not our performance but we certainly have grown in a number of different ways," Ryan said.
"We'll celebrate what's been a tough season, third place and playing in a Prelim Final is nothing to scoff at in this competition, five other teams wanted that, they didn't get it we did.
"Then we'll go away and see where we can improve."
While Fever's season is over, the Vixens will face the Thunderbirds in the Grand Final on Saturday 4 July from 7:30pm AEST.
