Melbourne Vixens snare a spot in the grand final of 2026 after defeating the West Coast Fever from Perth
Melissa Woods
The Melbourne Vixens have a chance to win back-to-back Super Netball titles for the first time, advancing to the grand final after a massive 62-51 preliminary final victory over West Coast Fever.
The thrilling win at John Cain Arena means the reigning champions will face the Adelaide Thunderbirds at the same venue next Saturday night.
This will be the Vixens’ third consecutive grand final, beating the Fever in 2025 after losing to the Thunderbirds the year before.
The Vixens entered Saturday night’s grand final qualifiers with four straight defeats, including a 64-55 defeat to the Fever in round 14 and a massive 13-goal semi-final loss to Adelaide.
But they ended that streak in style, with first-year coach Di Honey saying his team played an excellent game.
“I was absolutely delighted, we had a really good week of training and there was good weather and I felt like they were going to come out and produce the netball that had been missing for a few weeks,” Honey said.
“It was great to see and there was a real connection on the pitch and just the delivery and execution was so much better than before, we were absolutely delighted to make the grand final.”
Focusing on their start, the Vixens took a 17-11 lead after the first quarter and set the tempo with a great midfield attack.
Kiera Austin has been below her best in recent weeks but the superstar’s goal attack looked sharp from the opening whistle.
She and Diamonds’ other goalkeeper Sophie Garbin have combined wonderfully in the circle, and Fever coach Dan Ryan has made a few changes to his defense to limit the duo.
Austin, who was named player of the match, scored 24 of 26 goals, and Garbin scored 35 of 40 goals.
“Kiera played great tonight; when Kiera shoots, when the scrum ends, we’re a different team,” Honey said.
At the other end of the pitch, Vixens defenders Rudi Ellis and Jo Weston harassed Fever shooter Romelda Aiken-George, causing the veteran to make a series of mistakes.
As the lead approached 11 goals midway through the second half, Ryan called a timeout to impose the law on his soldiers and said: “Sharpen up. Do you want it or not?”
In response, Sasha Glasgow’s two-point shot increased the lead to seven but the Vixens took four of the next five goals; This included Garbin’s last-second scoring drive to take a 33-24 halftime lead.
The Fever matched the home team early in the third term, but the Vixens kicked again and Lily Graham, who replaced Garbin in the Super Shot period, added to the misery with a two-pointer. Thus, the Melbourne team entered the last quarter ahead 51-34.
West Coast came through again, but the gap proved too great to recover as Ryan suffered his third preliminary final defeat as Fever head coach.
While Aiken-George broke many records by scoring the 10,000th goal of his career in the national league, he was limited to 36 goals in 42 attempts.
Ryan said that his team played a superior game across the field.
“Full credit to the Vixens, this was them doing their best,” she said.
“They stood up early and maximized the opportunities they got from our turnovers.
“They really came to play like a hardened team does, which was too good for us today.”
AAP
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