WEST Coast Fever have started their season in the ideal fashion, beating the Sunshine Coast Lightning in a high-scoring affair in Perth 82-63.

The Fever raced out to a bit of an early lead, and although the Lightning were able to peg it back a bit the Fever extended it back out again at the back end of the term. There were a few things that made things harder for the Lightning early, including Kadie-Ann Dehaney being completely outplayed by Jhaniele Fowler, and some bad misses up the other end from skipper Steph Wood.

Another factor that was really helping the Fever was their speed down the court. Particularly if they got an intercept in their defensive end, they flew down the court every time, so fast that the Fever were even close to being in danger of any held ball calls.

It was a high scoring first term, with the Fever leading 26 goals to 18 at quarter time. The margin roughly stayed the same for the vast majority of the second term. Both sides went toe to toe and despite some classy intercept work at both ends, the Lightning just could not bridge the gap.

Despite having the comfortable lead, the Fever made a few interesting positional changes with about four minutes left in the term. Courtney Bruce went to goal defence and Rudi Ellis came on at goal keeper. The Lightning tried to change things up too, swapping Cara Koenen for debutant Reilley Batcheldor.

The Lightning continued to miss crucial shots, and at half time the margin was 13 goals in favour of the Fever.

Both sides made a number of changes at half time, particularly the Lightning, who made nine changes.

One change of note for the Lightning was Tara Hinchliffe, who moved from goal defence to goal keeper, no doubt in an attempt to quell the influence of Fowler. The changes did not do much for the Lightning in the opening minutes, as they could not reduce the gap and they made even more changes only a matter of minutes in.  

Things went from bad to worse for the Lightning as the quarter progressed though, as the Fever put on an onslaught and the Lightning were just no match.

By the time the teams turned for home, the margin had ballooned to 26 goals. The final quarter started much better for the Lightning, with a five-goal run to the visitors before the Fever even scored.

Although the Lightning would go on to win the final term 19 goals to 12, the damage had already been well and truly done and the Fever got the dominant win. The win was such a dominant one from the Fever that they broke the record for the highest score in a Super Netball game. The previous record was 80.

The Player of the Match was Fowler, who was absolutely dominant in that goal shooter role for the Fever. The Lightning through everything at her to counter her influence,  but she was able to comfortably beat anything that was thrown at her. She also almost beat her own record for highest number of goals in a game individually, which was 70.

She was also very accurate in front of goal. Her only two missed shots for the entire game were her two Super Shot attempts, and she scored 64 regular goals, which outscored the entire Lightning team.

The debutant Batcheldor was also very accurate in front of goal, she was impressive on debut and looked like she belonged at this level.

West Coast Fever are now on the road for three matches, starting with a trip to the east coast to play the Magpies. Sunshine Coast Lightning meanwhile are back at home next weekend in a Queensland derby against the Lightning.

West Coast Fever 26 | 20 | 24 | 12 (82)
Sunshine Coast Lightning 18 | 15 | 11 | 19 (63)

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

Sunshine Coast Lightning:

GS: Cara Koenen
GA: Steph Wood
WA: Laura Scherian
C: Mahalia Cassidy          
WD: Kate Walsh
GD: Tara Hinchliffe         
GK: Kadie-Ann Dehaney