It’s been a wild week of headlines in Super Netball as we begin our countdown towards the finals with only a month left of the regular season to play.
On Sunday, both the Queensland Firebirds and NSW Swifts lost their matches to the Melbourne Mavericks, 73-61, and West Coast Fever, 78-71, respectively.
After the Firebirds farewelled their coach and the Swifts their championship player under controversial circumstances on the same night.
Fever goal shooter Jhaniele Fowler-Nembhard deserves a mention for scoring 76 points against the Swifts (74 goals, one super shot) and marking a new individual record in a Super Netball game.
Julie Fitzgerald also hit a significant milestone — coaching 400 games in the national league — that is unlikely to ever be repeated, given her unmatched longevity in the sport across 25 seasons.
Alas, the Giants couldn’t reward her efforts as they fell to the defending premiers Adelaide Thunderbirds, 57-42. The reigning champs are humming along nicely thanks to their Jamaican defence and more on Latty Wilson in just a moment.
Meanwhile, the Melbourne Vixens held onto their new-found position at the top of the ladder, beating the Sunshine Coast Lightning, 63-61, in the closest game of the weekend.
If you missed it, don’t worry — we’ll get you up to speed with our Super Netball Round-Up.
Sam Wallace-Joseph officially departs
This is a story that has been bubbling along for several weeks and on Thursday, the NSW Swifts officially confirmed Trinidad and Tobago import Sam Wallace-Joseph had parted ways with the club after eight seasons.
The goal shooter had been dropped ever since the team lost to the Thunderbirds in round seven, where they only managed to score 33 goals – the lowest-ever total in the competition’s history.
A statement from the Swifts declared the split was by “mutual agreement” after failing to resolve a matter concerning Wallace-Joseph’s behaviour within the team environment.
“The behavioural standard expected of everyone in the Swifts environment — across players, coaches and staff — is team first and there are no exceptions to that,” it read.
The Swifts have refused to divulge any more details and want the matter to remain confidential.
The team headed to Perth a couple of days early for their game against the Fever, hoping to escape the noise in Sydney and spend some time bonding as a group.
But it didn’t stop them conceding their fourth straight loss or looking mentally exhausted throughout the night.
Speaking afterwards, head coach Briony Akle divulged how much the ordeal had weighed on the playing group over the past few weeks. Her answers made it sound like the decision was not so mutual after all.
“It’s been a tough month … Sam Wallace-Joseph won’t be back with us, that’s a decision that the club has made, and we need to move on,” Akle said.
“It’s unprecedented probably to lose a player in netball halfway through a season and it’s via the club choice, but for us it was for the best for the team … It’s been weighing us down.”
The Swifts are now four days into a 21-day period that ends July 4, where they can name a temporary or permanent replacement to close out this season.
So, will they keep 11th player Grace Whyte as their third shooting option?
Or will they try to sign a new face straight away?
Mavericks training partner and Tonga Tala goal shooter Uneeq Palavi would be a great option.
Akle coached Palavi (185cm tall) as an assistant in the Tala set-up at the last Netball World Cup.
Palavi played a pivotal role in the team’s four-peat at the Pacific Aus Sports Netball Series in Brisbane that wrapped on Saturday.
Giants training partner Monika O’tai is another they could look to.
O’tai (187cm tall) captained Australia’s Fast5 gold medal winning team at the 2023 Commonwealth Youth Games and also led the NSW U19s side that took out the nationals title this year.
But the biggest get would likely be Ugandan shooter Mary Cholhok, who stands at 201cm tall and took the She Cranes to new heights at the World Cup – as they finished in fifth place.
Cholhok is the UK Netball Superleague’s leading scorer (878 goals) for a fourth season and her Loughborough Lightning team has finished second to reach finals.
The final day of play for the UK’s top-flight competition is June 29, which would make Cholhok free for the final two rounds of Super Netball.
Whether it’s worth trying to sign Cholhok now or waiting for the off-season depends on how close the Swifts can manage to stay in contention for the top four.
Right now, they sit in sixth place just four points behind the Lightning and Mavericks.
Second coach leaves Firebirds in four days
The Queensland Firebirds have now seen the back of two coaches in four days.
Firstly, head coach Bec Bulley exited on Thursday night as reported by ABC Sport.
Now, assistant Lauren Brown, who was supposed to act as caretaker for the remainder of the season has decided to step away from the club.
Brown was seen hugging the players ahead of their game against the Mavericks as she flew solo without Bulley and looked visibly upset after they succumbed to a 12-goal loss.
In her place, former assistant Katie Walker will take charge for the final four rounds.
Walker has been involved with the Super Netball Reserves program and previously worked under Megan Anderson during her two-year stint at the club.
Anderson left at the end of the 2022 season, after the side failed to make finals under her tenure – finishing in fifth and sixth place.
Bec Bulley was then appointed, but the Firebirds have slipped even further down the ladder to sit in the bottom two since then.
This year, they’re a real chance of finishing with the wooden spoon.
The way this has played out at Firebirds shows a pattern of recruitment at the club, as both coaches were hired without their high-performance coaching accreditation, expected to come up with results without a senior assistant for support and sent on their way for not meeting expectations within almost two years to the day.
There are roughly 30 active Australian coaches with high-performance accreditation.
However, there’s thought to be a huge backlog of people waiting to complete it after the COVID pandemic.
If a coach is appointed to a Super Netball role, they are given a two-year deadline to complete their high-performance accreditation.
Bulley only held elite accreditation when she was appointed – one tier down from high performance in the six-tier framework – and was on track to complete the final stage.
As for who the Firebirds might look to next, that’s a real toughie.
It’s clear they need a more experienced figure and to offer them better support.
The majority of those 30 coaches with top accreditation are actually thought to be based in Queensland, so there should be plenty up to the job in their home state – even if they’re not obvious to us.
Latty Wilson in-line for season MVP
To finish on a happier note, it’s high time we spoke about Latanya Wilson.
The Jamaican defender that goes by the nickname ‘Latty’ has been carving up the midcourt for the Adelaide Thunderbirds, winning plenty of ball and making life hell for wing attacks.
Despite spending most of her time in wing defence throughout her fourth Super Netball season – a role that is often more about tagging and rarely shows up on the stats sheet – Wilson leads the competition for intercepts with 37.
Her light footwork, closing speed and vertical leap also make her a great option in the circle at goal defence, alongside fellow Sunshine Girl Shamera Sterling-Humphrey.
Last year’s Super Netball MVP Sterling-Humphrey is second behind Wilson for intercepts (33) and is in the number one spot for defensive rebounds (23) and deflections (68).
Although the goal keeper is likely to be in the conversation again, considering her consistency and dominance in the game, the big difference we’d argue this season for the Thunderbirds is there is less reliance on Sterling-Humphrey as the last line of defence.
What makes the Thunderbirds so dangerous now – in a year after they already won the premiership – is that they are now stealing possession higher up the court to share the load.
This can be largely attributed to 23-year-old Wilson’s game changing presence, barely giving her opposition player room to breathe.
Wilson’s peak form comes a year on from the heartbreak of narrowly escaping a fire that burnt down her home in Kingston.
All of her belongings perished – including her original World Cup bronze and Commonwealth Games silver medals.
On Saturday, she showcased another excellent performance against the Giants, coming away with the Player of the Match award.
The last six seasons have seen the overall MVP awarded to a Jamaican and it looks like it could very much be the case again this year.