SUNSHINE Coast Lightning picked up a really big win in the context of their season, comprehensively beating Collingwood Magpies 65-50 in a dominant display. In a historic first ever Anzac Day game, the Lightning blitzed the Pies in the second and third quarter, and a rattled Pies side was unable to recover.

It was not long before Collingwood pinched a goal off a Sunshine Coast centre pass and then converted to consolidate a handy buffer, thanks to some strong defensive work from both Jodi-Ann Ward and Geva Mentor.

Ward in particular was on fire early, with her defensive work helping Collingwood in a few more goals early. The Lightning finally kicked into gear mid term, and got within two goals of their hosts. They were finally picking up the defensive gains Collingwood was earlier in the quarter, and in the shadows of the Power Five, drew level.

The Power Five was a very different story, as thanks to some excellent defensive pressure from Karla Pretorius and Kadie-Ann Dehaney and some on target Super Shot shooting from Steph Wood, it was the Lightning who raced ahead to lead by nine goals at the opening change.

Collingwood got the better of the starts in the second term, and had quickly reduced the margin to four goals after scoring six of the first seven goals of the term. The Lightning then steadied to push the margin back out to closer to what it looked like at the first change.

Things continued to go positively for the Lightning in the Power Five as their lead grew to double digits. Not even some excellent Super Shot shooting from Kelly Singleton could help Collingwood claw back the deficit, and as such they found itself 14 goals down at the main break.

As much as Mentor and Ward were doing the defensive work to keep their side in the match, nothing much else was going right for the Pies. The Lightning were looking confident moving the ball down the court, were winning the defensive ball and as such were able to keep their lead in the double digits almost all quarter.

Perhaps seeing the direness of the situation the Magpies’ shooters were going for the Super Shot straight away when it finally came to the Power Five time, but just did not get nearly enough opportunities to land the number of Super Shots needed to get back in the game.

The Lightning ended the quarter with a 17-goal lead and a level of confidence that was going to hold them in good stead in the final term. In the end the margin proved just too big for Collingwood to come back from, as scoring tightened up and errors in attack from the home side proved costly for Collingwood.

For the Lightning, Pretorius (10 gains, seven deflections, four intercepts) was an absolute star, while Dehaney (six gains, four deflections, one intercept) was really impressive too.

Meanwhile for the Pies, Mentor (six deflections, six gains, one intercept) was a rock in defence, as was Ward (three deflections, three gains).

COLLINGWOOD MAGPIES 12 | 15 | 12 | 11 (50)
SUNSHINE COAST LIGHTNING 21 | 20 | 15 | 9 (65)

STARTING SEVENS:

Collingwood Magpies

GS: Shimona Nelson
GA: Sophie Garbin
WA: Kelsey Browne
C: Molly Jovic
WD: Ash Brazill
GD: Jodi-Ann Ward
GK: Geva Mentor

Sunshine Coast Lightning

GS: Cara Koenen
GA: Steph Wood
WA: Annie Miller
C: Laura Scherian
WD: Mahalia Cassidy
GD: Karla Pretorious
GK: Kadie-Ann Dehaney