MELBOURNE Vixens have come from an early deficit to overpower a young Queensland Firebirds outfit, 73-61 in front of 6475 people at Melbourne Arena on Saturday afternoon in the opening match of the Suncorp Super Netball (SSN) season. Caitlin Thwaites and Tegan Philip put on a shooting display with 73 goals from 75 attempts, while Emily Mannix won Player of the Match for her efforts on Romelda Aiken (36 from 42). The Vixens kept the same starting seven for the entire game, while the Firebirds rolled out the changes to no avail, with all 10 players getting court time including Amy Sommerville who played her first top-level game since 2017.

A fast-starting Queensland Firebirds were reeled in by Melbourne Vixens in a game of two quarters in the first half. The Firebirds burst out of the blocks, piling on seven goals to one as Aiken and Gretel Tippett combined perfectly in the circle. Mahalia Cassidy was working hard defensively to win plenty of it and picked up a crucial loose ball before being on the receiving end outside the circle and handing off a goal assist. By the time the Vixens called the first timeout, Philip had scored the only goal for the home side.

With the crowd silenced and a little stunned, they would have been more pleased with what they saw in the second half of the first term, as the sides broke even, and the Vixens marginally taking control of the momentum at times. Thwaites under the post and Philp from long-range were making a damaging duo, while Kate Moloney and Liz Watson were now starting to take control of the midcourt. While early on Tara Hinchcliff had been impressive on Thwaites and Aiken was on top of Mannix, the tide turned both in favour of the Vixens. The last minute saw a flurry of goals and Thwaites’ final goal in the last few seconds cut the deficit to four by quarter time.

The second term saw the Vixens play the way that everyone in the arena had expected them to play, controlling the midcourt and the goalers taking advantage of their inexperienced opponents. Thwaites was too strong for Hinchcliffe and Philip finding space against Kim Jenner. The passing from both sides were still shaky with plenty of turnovers – Cassidy (five) and Watson (four) the most for their respective sides.

Aiken was still a 196cm problem in the goal circle and was allowed too much space by Mannix, but the other end of the court was on point. The Firebirds were beginning to make too many mistakes passing down the court, going for the predictable high ball into Aiken and the stringent Vixens defence was awaiting the pass. Then on the counter attack, the Vixens were firing it down to Thwaites and Philip in the circle with Moloney and Watson winning the ball back. With just over three minutes remaining, the Vixens finally took the lead. They got out to a two-goal lead before the Firebirds luckily managed to secure a turnover and then score the final two goals, the last of which came from Aiken – her twenty-fourth – to level the scores at 35 goals apiece.

The half-time break did nothing to slow the Vixens down as the home side produced two early intercepts and then converted through Thwaites who found herself opposed to Laura Clemesha who subbed in for Hinchcliffe who had been impressive early, but was giving away too many penalties to her more experienced opponent. Thwaites was on fire in the third term as the Vixens began to run away with the game, scoring eight of the first 11 goals – the Australian Diamond nailing seven of them. Within five minutes, Hinchcliffe was back on Thwaites. The other change was Jemma Mi Mi coming on for Cassidy in centre.

Thwaites was simply unbelievable, as the Vixens got out to as much as an eight-goal lead midway through the third quarter. Just to remind us she was human, Thwaites missed her first attempt of the game, and the Firebirds capitalised, racing it down the other end of the court as Aiken converted back-to-back goals with a miss in between to cut the deficit to five with just over three minutes left. Just as the Firebirds seemed to have arrested some momentum, the Vixens won the ball back through a clumsy turnover pass into the forward third and Thwaites made them pay with another pair of back-to-back goals and the Vixens were eight goals in front. Tippett scored a much-needed breather in the last second, but they found themselves down, 55-48.

Cassidy returned to the court in centre and Mi Mi moved into wing attack, as Caitlyn Nevins made her way to the bench. The Vixens had no changes on or off the court as their two quarter dominance continued into the final stanza, scoring four of the first five goals to extend their margin out to double digits early in the term. Much to the visiting fans excitement, the Firebirds were not about to fly the white flag however, cutting the deficit to seven at one point. But the dam wall was on the verge of breaking if it had not already, and when Mannix grabbed a loose ball and it ended in a Thwaites conversion, it was back out to nine goals.

With the game seemingly slipping away, Sommerville got her chance to shine having not debuted since 2016 with nine minutes left, coming on to replace Aiken in a surprise move. The experienced Vixens showed no mercy in Sommerville’s return to the court, with Mannix winning a crucial one-on-one and Moloney wrestling the ball from the former NSW Swift goalers’ hands. Sommerville managed to get on the board with two goals, but the game was done and dusted by that stage however, as the Vixens put on a masterclass with Moloney and Watson piling on goal assist after goal assist as Thwaites and Philp piled on the scores on their way to collecting seven of a possible eight points in the win.

Mannix was named Player of the Match, bouncing back from a slow start to control Aiken and push her defensively, before using her experience to control Sommerville. Thwaites was unbelievable under the post finishing with 50 goals from 51 attempts, while Philip had 23 from 24, the same as her opposing goal attack, Tippett. Watson and Moloney combined for a massive 62 goal assists, compared with 39 from Cassidy, Nevins and Mi Mi. For the Firebirds, Tippett also had 10 assists, while Aiken shot 36 goals from 42 assists under the post. Simpson led from the front in defence, but at the end of the day, the young defenders were just overpowered and outclassed by more experienced goalers.

The Vixens announced themselves as a genuine premiership contender, while the Firebirds showed great signs for the future and just need to put together a four-quarter effort.

STARTING LINE-UPS:

Melbourne Vixens:

GS | Caitlin Thwaites
GA | Tegan Philip
WA | Liz Watson
C | Kate Moloney
WD | Renae Ingles
GD | Jo Weston
GK | Emily Mannix

Queensland Firebirds:

GS | Romelda Aiken
GA | Gretel Tippett
WA | Caitlyn Nevins
C | Mahalia Cassidy
WD | Gabi Simpson
GD | Kim Jenner
GK | Tara Hinchcliffe