Magpies get big Super Netball win over Thunderbirds
It was a Magpies netball performance that was more than the sum of its decorated individual parts.
Linda Pearce is the Chief Tennis Writer and general sports reporter for The Age. She writes about a range of sports, including football, netball, and gymnastics. Linda has twice been named Australian tennis writer of the year.
It was a Magpies netball performance that was more than the sum of its decorated individual parts.
Magpies Netball coach Kristy-Keppich Birrell says "surprise" would not be the word she would use to describe her new team's 1-2 standing after three rounds, because it was always accepted within the Holden Centre's incredibly well-resourced walls (our words) that a team built from scratch and with a minimal collective pre-season preparation would need some getting-to-know-you time, however elite its separate components.
Capitalising on home games against two of the competition's more beatable opponents is vital for Victoria's Super Netball teams this weekend.
Ash Barty awoke to a phone full of test messages in Kuala Lumpur on Monday after becoming the first Australian woman not named Sam Stosur to win a WTA singles title in six years, but one from a fellow fisherwoman with whom Barty has formed a close bond was particularly special. Evonne Goolagong Cawley was among the well-wishers; Barty was thrilled.
After a double-bill that earned the Magpies and Vixens just one point between them, next weekend's follow-up will come against Super Netball's two weakest teams and a loss for either Victorian team would be dire.
When the tale of the inaugural Super Netball season is written, the Melbourne Vixens may well lament the last 90 seconds of Saturday's round-three clash with their bogey team, the NSW Swifts.
The Giants remain unbeaten. Collingwood remain unable to win a game on their home court. The Magpies, raging flag favourites in the pre-season, now have a solitary win from their opening three rounds after a 59-51 loss at Hisense Arena.
In the melting pot that is Collingwood's multi-team sporting HQ is a netballer who has already dabbled in football and hopes to switch full-time to AFLW when her original career is done. When Ash Brazill sees the Pies' women's team, they ask her to come and have a kick. Which she does. When netball staffers notice, they good-naturedly warn the pesky football types to stay away.
Bernard Tomic should have been barred by tournament rules from returning to play a doubles match just two hours after another singles retirement for which he has been widely condemned, according to experienced coach and commentator Roger Rasheed.
Having opened with mixed results against two formidable new rivals, the Melbourne Vixens renew an old acquaintance in round three. Yet the fact that the recast NSW Swifts may not be such a familiar foe after all may be a good thing, for no team has tormented the Vixens so often, over so long.
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