THE final game of Round 10 brought plenty of excitement with the Adelaide Thunderbirds coming home strong and challenging the Melbourne Vixens in front of a hostile home crowd. We attended the match and took notes on one player from each side, analysing their impact on the match.

MELBOURNE VIXENS: RENAE INGLES
By: Sophie Taylor

Despite a month away from the big league of Suncorp Super Netball thanks to the Netball World Cup, Vixens veteran Renae Ingles slipped right back into her role on court. Ingles put in the hard yards all throughout the match, not letting up and continually finding the loose ball against an equally damaging opponent in Chelsea Pitman. Her speed through the midcourt was phenomenal with ball in hand, finding players across the third to split the court and open up space in attack with fellow transition players, Liz Watson and Jo Weston running on empty after the World Cup.

Ingles’ ability to run the ball down with the side’s usual speed despite Watson and Weston sitting back until absolutely necessary was credit to her dynamic change of direction and innate knowledge of where her teammates were, finding space to push downcourt and leading the charge with the help of captain, Kate Moloney. Ingles wore Pitman like a glove, safe in the knowledge that Pitman also played in the World Cup, so was able to run her down to pick up clever intercepts and deflections to win ball back for her side. Her hands over pressure was immense, applying constant attention to the ball through the midcourt and finding plenty of run to stick with Pitman across the court to deny any easy passes to her opposition.

Despite Ingles’ four deflections all working in Adelaide’s favour, her every move put doubt in the Thunderbirds’ heads when letting go of the ball, giving the Vixens a much needed push to the finish line. Meanwhile, Ingles’ chase for a second effort and her three intercepts helped her side to capitalise on the Thunderbirds’ efforts to fight back, keeping the Vixens one step ahead of the Thunderbirds closing the margin.

ADELAIDE THUNDERBIRDS: CHELSEA PITMAN
By: Taylah Melki

Coming off a bronze medal in the World Cup, Chelsea Pitman did not skip a beat taking ownership in the attacking third for the Thunderbirds. The wing attack displayed her composure and skill to think her way through the defence and hit the circle edge with pace and precision. She used angles well to avoid Vixens defenders and reduce the chance of deflections while delivering well weighted passes into the goal circle. Her vision into the circle was second to none, feeding into Sasha Glasgow, Cody Lange and Emma Ryde effortlessly and spotting them on the lead time and time again.

Pitman showed great leadership and strength to tussle for prime position on circle edge and use her body to block out the defensive pressure. She offered strong cuts and drives and came out hard at the centre pass to consistently provide an option for the Thunderbirds. Her second phase work was solid for the Thunderbirds, working hard to move the ball down the court and pull out all the stops in the attacking third.

She varied up her passes into the goal circle to make them less predictable and had good depth on her drives to command the ball in the attacking third. The Thunderbirds captain displayed her strong hands to take the ball at full stretch and under pressure while also carefully offloading passes. She worked hard to stay in the game with good back up play on the transverse line to pick-up any loose passes and create doubt in the oppositions mind. Her attacking work was solid throughout the match while she also applied good hands over pressure to slow down the Vixens in transition.