The Queensland Firebirds have stunned the Greater Western Sydney Giants in one of the upsets of the Super Netball season.
A lethargic Giants outfit has wasted a golden opportunity to claim top spot on the Super Netball ladder with a shock 11-goal loss to the seventh-placed Queensland Firebirds in Melbourne on Sunday night.
A hungrier Firebirds line-up led at every break and hardly looked challenged in the 63-52 win, claiming their third victory for the season on the back of a colossal Kim Ravaillion performance.
The Firebirds centre put on a clinic through the midcourt with 41 feeds and 29 goal assists, while gun goalkeeper Tara Hinchcliffe played like an anchor in defence.
Competition Super Shot leader Jo Harten threatened to push the Giants into the game at times, but made only three of her eight long-range attempts in an atypically inaccurate shooting display.
The Firebirds brought the heat and asked early questions of their finals-bound opponents, opening a surprising seven-goal lead in the first quarter before Sophie Dwyer converted a Super Shot to keep the Giants within striking distance at quarter time.
But Queensland had no plans of relenting an early advantage, and continued to outplay the Giants deep into the second stanza through the link-up play of Ravaillion and Gretal Bueta, who shot for goal with impeccable accuracy to help maintain the lead.
A trio of Super Shot scores — two from Harten and another from Dwyer — promised to awaken a slow-starting Giants outfit, but 20 turnovers and a 68 per cent conversion rate at halftime ensured they remained off the pace.
Queensland’s stunning first-half rally was also due to the work of Hinchliffe, who formed a stubborn defensive partnership with Kim Jenner to keep the Giants’ menacing attack at bay.
Harten tried to force her side back into the contest from Super Shot range, but when Hinchliffe wasn’t intercepting the ball, the English import’s long-distance attempts were off-line.
The Firebirds, conversely, continued to capitalise at the other end through shooter Romelda Aiken (39 goals) and before long, the lead had inflated to unassailable heights.
The win keeps the Firebirds’ finals hopes alive, and Queensland coach Megan Anderson says the victory was sparked by a blend of honest feedback and hard work.
“We’ve had patchy performances up until now,” Anderson said.
“We were disappointed in what we’ve put out so far this season and we’ve had a good hard look at ourselves over the last few weeks, and everyone’s put in some really hard work and really good reflection on what they can bring to the team.”
Giants coach Julie Fitzgerald was seething at her players’ sluggish start, and rued her side’s inability to turn the game around after being stunned early.
“We got off to a really bad start, and the harder we tried, the worse we got,” she said.
“We certainly didn’t play the type of netball that we came here and wanted to play, so we really have to put some hard yards in on the training court to make sure we don’t play like that again.”