THE 2022 Suncorp Super Netball (SSN) season is almost upon us, so it is time to take a look at each of the contenders for the upcoming season and what 2022 might have in store for them.

Today we start the series by looking at the West Coast Fever, who finished third on the ladder in 2021 and made the Preliminary Final.

Season 2021

Ladder: 3rd
Win-loss: 11-3
Percentage: 116.9%

Now to say that last season was eventful for the Fever would be an understatement.

They started out the year with negative points due to historical salary cap issues, but that was not a burden for long. They had a huge start to the season, and although they had some badly timed losses to fellow top four sides heading into finals, they still made finals and finished third.

They came up against Sunshine Coast in the minor semi final, and after the Lightning came out strong the Fever rose to take the win. Unfortunately for the Fever, their season came to a close the following weekend when the GIANTS defeated them in the Preliminary Final.

Looking ahead to 2022, one positive for the Fever is the consistency in their squad.

There has only been one change from the 2021 squad. Developing defender Olivia Lewis has swapped coasts and come across to the Melbourne Vixens.

In her place, in comes Rudi Ellis. Ellis is a goalkeeper originally from Victoria, but has spent the last two years playing with the Queensland Firebirds.

Courtney Bruce is captain of the Fever again in 2022, and will be joined in the leadership group by Jessica Anstiss, who will serve as her vice captain this season.

They do have a new coach at the helm in 2022 though. Stacey Marinkovich is no longer in charge of the Fever, and is now the full time coach of the Diamonds.

Her replacement is Dan Ryan, who is not only a former captain of the Australian men’s team, but has had an extensive coaching career around the world. He coached the Adelaide Thunderbirds in the 2017 and 2018 seasons, and most recently was the Head Coach & High-Performance Director of Leeds Rhinos over in England.

Ryan said the preseason had gone very well for the Fever, despite a few challenges along the way.

“Yeah preseason’s gone really well all things considered,” he said. “We’re into our 18th week now, and [we’ve] obviously had to manage having a number of players out of the environment for an extended period of time, but it’s enabled us to put some great work into the players that were here based in Perth and I think we’ve made some great progress for a number of athletes, which has been fantastic.

“Obviously having only one or two training sessions with the entire group before Team Girls Cup was a bit of a challenge for us but I think the way we handled the opportunity at Team Girls Cup and the way we performed and what we learnt about where we’re at I think was really beneficial and certainly coming back to Perth now with the full team on the court we’ve really been able to shift a gear and refine parts of our game that we needed to in preparation for Round 1.”

The main set of practice matches this preseason was the Team Girls Cup, and Ryan was pleased with how the tournament went for his side.

“To come away with three wins out of four matches, I think gives us a pretty respectable result all things considered, and again off the handful of training sessions together, it was clear that we hadn’t spent a lot of time together,” Ryan said. “But I think the biggest thing that weekend was gathering as much information about ourselves and each other and having some lived experiences together. It was the first time I got to see the team in competition mode and them see me in game day coaching mode too, so that was critically valuable for us.

“We won three matches playing some good netball in parts and playing nowhere near our potential or capabilities in other parts. So I think our ability to still win matches even though we’re nowhere near what we know we’re capable of was exciting and then to experience the final with a very different feel and a very different level of pressure against the Vixens was incredibly valuable too because that’s really seen a great shift in our training environment since coming back from that experience.”

After many years near the top but not quite getting the chocolates, both coach and leaders are keen to finally make that next jump and reach the ultimate success.

West Coast Fever’s Round 1 match is against the Lightning at home at RAC Arena at 1pm local time on March 27.

2022 SQUAD

Attack

Jhaniele Fowler
Alice Teague-Neeld
Sasha Glasgow

Midcourt

Verity Charles
Jess Anstiss
Emma Cosh

Defence

Courtney Bruce
Sunday Aryang
Stacey Francis-Bayman
Rudi Ellis