MELBOURNE Vixens put on a second half fightback to defeat the Queensland Firebirds 72-60 in the Suncorp Super Netball yesterday. After the visitors dominated the first half, the Vixens turned it around in the third term to record a big 12-goal win.

The Firebirds pinched a goal off the third centre pass of the game, and certainly had chances to consolidate off their next centre pass but could not as the Vixens countered right back and things were back to being on centre pass.

Thanks to some strong defensive pressure the Vixens did not take too long to establish a lead of their own. Despite being a couple of goals down for much of the quarter, the Firebirds were still able to feed the ball into Donnell Wallam fairly easily, with Olivia Lewis’ aerial ability not on full display.

The margin sat at three goals at the beginning of the Power Five period, but the Firebirds got within one during the first half of the Power Five.

That became one in front for the Firebirds with a minute and a half to go in the quarter after Wallam landed a Super Shot, but did not last long as Mwai Kumwenda countered with one of her own off the very next centre pass.

One last Vixens goal with not even five seconds left in the quarter saw the margin at two in favour of the home side at the first change.

The Vixens got the stronger of the starts in the second term, and after a run of four goals in a row their lead was out to four goals. However the Firebirds then countered with a run of their own and halved the margin, then levelled proceedings and took the lead in the shadows of the Power Five.

The Firebirds’ defence was particularly impressive, as they really lifted and made life hard for the Vixens shooters. Not much was going right for the Vixens in the final stages of the first half, and as such the visitors took a five goal lead into the main break.

The Firebirds began the third quarter where they left off the second, scoring the first three goals of the term to extend their lead further. Although the Vixens had rejigged their midcourt at half-time, still nothing much seemed to be going right as the margin headed towards double figures.

Just when it looked like the Vixens really needed a spark to turn things around they began to work their way back into the match after a run of seven unanswered goals. Defensively they were playing with a lot more confidence and Kiera Austin was on fire from Super Shot range and playing more confidently after a shaky first half.

With 40 second left on the clock the scores were dead even, but a last second Vixens goal saw them take a single goal margin into the final break. The Vixens again got the better of the starts in the final term and raced away to a handy five goal lead inside the opening three minutes.

The Vixens really put their foot down after that, and no matter how hard they tried the Firebirds could not keep up. It was an eight-goal margin at the beginning of the Power Five, but quickly pushed out to beyond double digits in the Power Five and things never recovered from there for the Firebirds.

For the Vixens Liz Watson (49 feeds, 33 assists) was a workhorse in midcourt, as was Lewis (seven gains, two deflections) and Jo Weston (three gains, two intercepts) in defence.

Meanwhile for the Firebirds Wallam (51 regular goals, two super shot goals) did the bulk of the shooting but neither of her shooting partners could match her for volume. Ruby Bakewell-Doran (six gains, four intercepts, three deflections) also had a great game.

MELBOURNE VIXENS 17 | 10 | 20 | 25 (72)
QUEENSLAND FIREBIRDS 15 | 17 | 14 | 14 (60)

STARTING SEVENS

Melbourne Vixens

GS: Mwai Kumwenda
GA: Kiera Austin
WA: Liz Watson
C: Kate Moloney
WD: Jo Weston
GD: Emily Mannix
GK: Olivia Lewis

Queensland Firebirds

GS: Donnell Wallam
GA: Emily Moore
WA: Lara Dunkley
C: Macy Gardner
WD: Kim Ravaillion
GD: Ruby Bakewell-Doran
GK: Remi Kamo