THE West Coast Fever have been given quite the scare by the Queensland Firebirds, but have held on for a 73 goal to 71 win and have kept their undefeated record in tact.

After a poor start, the Firebirds almost pulled off the almightiest of comebacks in Gabi Simpson’s 150th game, but it was not to be.

In the first quarter, things started very differently to how they ended.

Things went goal for goal for the first nine goals before a mistake from the Firebirds in attack proved costly as the Fever went up the other end, scored then consolidated off the next centre pass to build a buffer.

In the blink of an eye, things went from tied to the Fever being up by five goals as the visitors capitalised on every possible opportunity.

The Fever dominance continued right through the middle of the term, and their lead grew accordingly.

However, things did not go all their way with Courtney Bruce going down with what appeared to be a very painful ankle injury. She was able to return to the game in the second quarter, but there was no doubt a few worried faces in the Fever camp when she initially went down.

Regardless that did not stop the Fever, whose lead had hit nine goals by the time the Power Five hit, and grew to 10 by the time the quarter ended.

The Firebirds could not make a dent in the lead early in the second term as things went goal for goal, but slowly but surely the Firebirds worked their way back into the match and started to eat into the deficit.

However, the Fever were quick to put an end to any Firebird resurgence, and briefly even extended their lead out even further to 11 goals.

In the Power Five that lead got even bigger as things were looking grim for the Firebirds.

The margin ultimately sat at 13 goals at the main break, but things were going to change dramatically in the second half.

Queensland got off to the better start in the second half as its defensive pressure really rose.

However, the Fever were quick to put a stop to the momentum and restored their earlier lead and extended it even more.

The Firebirds were not going to lie down without a fight. Although it took them until the Power Five period for their fightback to get going, they took a 12 goal lead and almost cut it in half to only be seven goals down at the final change.

It was a momentum swinging tussle early in the last term, but slowly but surely the home side ate away at the deficit.

The Firebirds got within five goals, but then the Fever steadied the ship and ended their momentum run briefly.

However, a real lift in defensive pressure from the Firebirds’ attackers swathe Firebirds really lift on the eve of the Power Five. They were not always able to capitalise, but still got the margin back down to as low as five.

Even with as little as a minute and a half left, the Fever’s lead was five goals and things were looking good for them.

Donnell Wallam had other ideas and landed two straight super shots to bring things back to a two goal margin.

Unfortunately though for the Firebirds they just rang out of time to complete the fightback and give Simpson the fairy tale milestone match.

The Fever’s two tall pillars in Jhaniele Fowler (60 goals from 61 attempts, one rebound) and Bruce (five gains, five deflections, three rebounds) really shone for their side in the win.

On the flipside, Wallam almost single handily won the game for her side, with 48 regular goals and a whopping seven converted Super Shots. Ruby Bakewell-Doran (five deflections, four gains, two rebounds, one intercept) also had a great game.

QUEENSLAND FIREBIRDS            15 | 15 | 21 | 20 (71)
WEST COAST FEVER                     25 | 18 | 15 | 15 (73)

STARTING SEVENS

Queensland Firebirds

GS: Donnell Wallam
GA: Mia Stower
WA: Lara Dunkley
C: Kim Ravaillion
WD: Gabi Simpson
GD: Ruby Bakewell-Doran
GK: Remi Kamo

West Coast Fever

GS: Jhaniele Fowler
GA: Sasha Glasgow
WA: Alice Teague-Neeld
C: Verity Simmons
WD: Sunday Aryang
GD: Kim Jenner
GK: Courtney Bruce