PLAYING in her second grand final in three seasons, West Coast Fever captain Courtney Bruce is gearing up for the big clash on Sunday against minor premiers Melbourne Vixens. Although the 2018 grand final did not go to plan, falling short to Sunshine Coast Lightning, the captain is determined to not dwell on the past and instead highlight the vast differences between the two journeys and the learnings she can take away from that past experience.

“Obviously the 2018 grand final, we went through in the first round of finals. So you kind of had two weeks to sit in a bubble and just soak it all up. And I think that was all encompassing especially being a home grand file that the city, Perth turned green for us. You couldn’t go to the shop without everyone knowing that we were Fever players in a grand final,” Bruce explained.

“I think the difference to this year is that – you know, day 76 or 77 or something ridiculous like that, away from home – we’ve had to fight every single week to be here. So it’s been a do-or-die attitude. So I think we haven’t had as much time to let it all sink in and take that that moment in, because we’ve had to move on and focus on the next thing. So take little bits from that (2018 grand final) but it is a lot different this year. We just know that everyone’s going to be at home watching us, cheering us on,” she said.

An experienced defender, Bruce is faced with a mammoth task on the weekend in the Melbourne Vixens. Boasting an extremely versatile shooting circle, Bruce has to be prepared for everything the Vixens throw at her with the likes of Caitlin Thwaites, Mwai Kumwenda and Tegan Philip all viable threats for the Victorian-based side.

“Yeah they definitely have one hell of a shooting end, don’t have to be reminded about that many times,” Bruce joked.

“You know, you want to play against the best and the Vixens shooting end this year has been the best. They are very versatile, yet like you said you don’t know what you’re going to come up against,” Bruce said.

:But I think the best thing about what we do as a defensive unit is obviously we’re going to look at the Vixens and know what they do but it’s all about what we want to do and the brand that we want to play so it’s just going to be that hard one on one defence, running with your player, locking it down, big hands up and really focusing on our role because I honestly believe if we can do that in 60 minutes, attacking teams can’t run with it. It’s hard work to have to attack against. Just that presence in defence, so you know it’s going be a tough battle.

“Kumwenda has been phenomenal this season and then you’ve got Thwaity playing in goal attack and playing 60 minutes and I just I’m in absolute awe of what she’s doing out there at the moment so it’s definitely going to be a battle,” she said. “But if you want to be the best you’ve got to beat the best, and they’re the standard at the moment.”

The shooting circle is not the only concern for the Fever with spearhead Liz Watson an integral member in the Vixens’ puzzle. Watson leads the competition for goal assists given her hot hand and sheer dominance around circle edge to continuously thread the needle, with Bruce admitting that teammate and wing defence Jess Anstiss will have her hands full trying to contain the power house wing attack.

“I guess just trying to wear Lizzy down and make her take more passes and do more work up the court more than anything,” she said. “Obviously, when the Vixens are free flowing they’re just unstoppable so putting the pressure up earlier on the court and forcing Liz up as far as possible. Also just trying to make them play off the circle, they’re phenomenal when they hit the top of the circle. I know Jess and Vez (Verity Charles) will be working just to push her off the court as much as possible.”

In what has been an unconventional season to say the least with the introduction of the super shot, rolling subs and of course the glaringly obvious hub life situation due to the COVID-19 restrictions, a premiership here would mean the world to not only Bruce but so too Fever fans.

“It’d be huge. I feel like everything has been thrown at us this year, and we’ve had to be so adaptable and flexible and I just think it would be one hell of a story to win a premiership under, everything that happened this year,” Bruce said. “Just from a club perspective, you know, we spent so long building a culture and a really great playing group on and off the court and I think it would just really instil to the rest of the league and the rest of Australia that you know we’re doing some amazing work over in the West and that we’ve got some amazing Western Australian talent in the Suncorp Super Netball. I just think it would do wonders and finally, WA would get a taste of success.”

“We honestly, I’m not biased at all, I do believe we have the best crowd and the best venue to play at, and to see the videos, and all the fans getting around and coming to RAC Arena and having five and a half thousand people there and we weren’t even playing, to watch on the screen. I think that moments like that and reasons how great our fan base is just – they deserve to taste some success because they’ve been loyal to me for nine seasons and we haven’t tasted success so I just think that’s special,” she said.

Although history is not in their favour with the Fever’s past two encounters against the Vixens resulting in a draw and a nine goal victory to the Melbourne side, West Coast are coming off a huge 14-goal victory over Sunshine Coast Lightning and will be riding a wave of success and should not be underestimated given they boast the likes of Jhaniele Fowler, Charles and excitement machine Sunday Aryang.

To hear the rest of the interview, listen to the latest episode of the Centre Pass Podcast.