THE West Coast Fever have flexed their muscles ahead of the finals, defeating the Adelaide Thunderbirds and in the process ending the Thunderbirds’ finals hopes for 2022.

Despite it being a tight affair for much of the opening half, an excellent third term from the home side really set things up for the Fever.

After both sides went goal for goal for much of the opening quarter, it was the Fever to were first to establish a bit of a lead for themselves.

They were able to maintain a three to four goal lead for much of the quarter, but it would have been much higher if not for some excellent defensive work from Latanya Wilson and Shamera Sterling.

The Thunderbirds did get within one of the Fever, but did not manage to take the lead from the Fever as the home side took a five goal lead into the first change.

It was the Thunderbirds who for the much better start to the second term, and actually took the lead about halfway through the term.

However, it was not long before the Fever wrestled control back and the lead with it.

Although the Fever’s lead was not much, the reluctance from Adelaide to shoot many super shots made it feel like it was much more.

At half time the margin was two in the Fever’s favour.  

Things remained tight early in the third term, but then Fever just started to wrestle control back again.

Things started to fall apart a bit for the Thunderbirds as the quarter progressed, and the Fever defence really got going and errant passing really hurt the visitors.

The Fever lead got out to as much as 10 goals during the third term, but the Fever got it down to seven late before a Sasha Glasgow super shot saw the final three quarter time margin at nine in the Fever’s favour.

Adelaide struggled to peg back much of the lead early in the final term, but as the mid point of the term came and went, they had got the lead back down to seven.

Unfortunately for the visitors, that is as close as they would get to overtaking the Fever as the Fever dominated the final half of the quarter to take the win.

For the Fever, Courtney Bruce was a rock in defence, finishing with three intercepts and a whopping 11 deflections.

Jhaniele Fowler was again a workhorse on the shooting front, only missing one attempt while Alice Teague-Neeld finished with a whopping 47 feeds and 27 goal assists.

Meanwhile for the Thunderbirds, their defence end was the real star of the show again, and things could have been very different without them.

Wilson finished with six deflections and a rebound, while Sterling finished with four deflections and four rebounds.  

WEST COAST FEVER                       20 | 10 | 19 | 19 (68)
ADELAIDE THUNDERBIRDS           15 | 13 | 12 | 17 (57)

STARTING SEVENS          

West Coast Fever:

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

Adelaide Thunderbirds:

GS: Lenize Potgeiter
GA: Tippah Dwan
WA: Georgie Horjus
C: Tayla Williams
WD: Hannah Petty
GD: Latanya Wilson
GK: Shamera Sterling