Monday 19 October 2020 18:20, UK
Tamsin Greenway takes a look at Suncorp Super Netball's Grand Final, Australia's pool of talent and England's Vitality Roses out in Australia.
Before I look at the Grand Final specifically, I was just wanted to say what an incredible achievement it was to have a full Suncorp Super Netball season.
In the current times, it was against all odds to play it out, and the sacrifices the players, coaches and all involved made, need to be recognised.
Six of Suncorp Super Netball's teams left their homes almost three months ago and relocated to the Queensland hub, on top of that the logistics to run a competition in the current environment are challenging, to say the least.
When it came to the Grand Final itself, it was everything I expected it to be! I expected it to be feisty, high-quality and to be as close at the end as it was.
There was a moment with about six minutes to go when West Coast Fever's fans probably thought that they were going to get it, but as we all know, six minutes is a huge amount of time in netball.
All credit to the Vixens and it did not surprise me that they won. The way that they have kept their unit together has been important; I believe they have been one of the teams with the fewest number of rolling subs this season.
It showed in the final, as the only changes that Vixens made were between Caitlin Thwaites and Tegan Philip at GA.
Shifting between Twaites and Philip is not shifting from experience to junior level, it's moving between two world-class players, and then the rest of the line-up was kept the same. I honestly believe that helped them get over the line in that Grand Final.
Also, let's take a moment to talk Liz Watsom, because in my eyes she was crucial in that victory.
Not only is Watson a quality player, but the changes that Fever made - bringing Jess Anstiss off her and going into centre - gave Watson a lot more space and eased Vixens' connection into the circle.
The other big influence was Mwai Kumwenda at shooter, who took the MVP award away from the final and was outstanding.
She was up against Courtney Bruce, who is difficult to play against and Bruce is the type of player who you know you have been in a contest with come the end of the game. Kumwenda managed that so well and some of her takes were truly exceptional.
What was really interesting for me, was that Fever did everything right in terms of how well they fed their shooter Jhanile Fowler and the opportunities they created for her. They held up Vixens for a long time, but that was just it, they held them up. They did not win the ball.
Vixens had the ability to weather that and did so in their attack end. Kumwenda's movement complemented Thwaites, on top of that Watson and Moloney's workrate drove their output and their accuracy was spot on. As a collective, the Vixens' attacking unit, were under huge amounts of pressure, and yet they stuck to task.
They got the ball to the edge, they went back when they needed to, they did not overkill on the feeds… whereas Fever at a couple of crucial moments, weren't able to do the same.
Watson, as she has been all season, was at the very heart of that. She took it upon herself and had a real battle with Anstiss in the first half and accelerated as the match progressed.
Looking wider at the Super Netball season in general, I am not actually going to speak much about the Super Shot to be honest! I have quite enjoyed it and I do not think that it has been as bad as so many thought it would be, although they might not acknowledge that yet!
Australian netball needs to be applauded for some of the talent that is coming through and that we have seen this season. The youngsters are really stepping up.
Tippah Dwan, who was filling Gretel Bueta's shoes at Firebirds, has done an outstanding job, and Emma Cosh, who came into Fever's starting line-up for the last few games, has now played in a Grand Final.
Across the board, have been a lot of players who I have been really, really impressed with and it should have given the new Aussie Diamonds head coach Stacey Marinkovich a headache.
When she announced her first squad, there were arguments about which WDs she should have selected, and Marinkovich has been able to leave out two WDs who would probably make it into any world team at the moment.
In short, this Suncorp Super Netball season has showed the conveyor belt of talent never stops in Australia.
I think that it's been another quality season for the Vitality Roses who are playing their domestic netball in Super Netball.
Stacey Francis, I think, showed her prowess with her individual play and also how she partnered with someone like Bruce in Fever's defensive end. It was fantastic for her to make another Grand Final appearance, although she was absolutely gutted with the result.
At NSW Swifts, the partnership between Natalie Haythornthwaite and Helen Housby will be so important for England moving forwards, so it was great to see them battling it out at the latter end of the competition in the Finals Series again.
When you look across the board, the English players out there are all key within their teams.
From someone like Jo Harten at GIANTS to Layla Guscoth with Shamera Sterling at Adelaide Thunderbirds… the English players are central to their teams and commanding starting places.
It's so important for England moving forwards. We have seen George Fisher will be going out to the ANZ Premiership next season and I do not think it will be long before she goes out to Suncorp either.
I do believe that the next group of English players need to start setting their sights on that league because at the moment, it is still the best way to help England internationally.
Live netball returns to Sky Sports with the Vitality Roses taking on the Silver Ferns in a three-Test series at the end of October. Join us for the first Test on October 28.
