sunday 26 may match day partner VS
By Jilalga Murray © JILALGA DESIGNS
Green Army, welcome to RAC Arena for today’s First Nations Round clash against the Melbourne Vixens.
This game holds special significance to our Club and our connection to First Nations people as well as the Shooting Stars program. It will be great to see the Shooting Stars participants taking part in various aspects of today’s game day including the Welcome to Country.
We also launched our new Indigenous Artwork this week which has been designed by Contemporary Aboriginal Artist Jilalga Murray and is represented on our new Indigenous Dress, which we will wear for the first time today.
Last week was an absolute heartstopper as we lifted in the key moments to ensure we secured a one-goal win over the Thunderbirds in the battle of the Sunshine Girls.
While the battle between Jhaniele Fowler-Nembhard and Shamera Sterling-Humphrey was enthralling, I was really pleased with the defensive work of Kadie-Ann Dehaney at the other end of the court.
Kadie-Ann has been getting better week-by-week and her performance against Romelda Aiken-George went a long way
to helping secure the premiership points.
The versatile Jordan Cransberg had her best game of the season and provided us with speed at Centre and Wing Attack which helped us surge throughout the contest.
This week, we welcome Simone McKinnis, Kate Moloney and the Melbourne Vixens to RAC Arena and we are all looking forward to experiencing this top of the table clash.
The Vixens sit second on the ladder and we know they will come out firing after their first loss of the season last week to the Sunshine Coast Lightning.
Their Diamonds shooting duo of Sophie Garbin and Kiera Austin will take on our international defence of Dehaney, Sunday Aryang and Fran Williams and it will be a contest not to be missed.
The midcourt battle between Moloney and Jess Anstiss, Kelsey Browne and Jordan Cransberg will also be critical to determining the result.
In attack, we will see Shanice Beckford go head-to-head with Jo Weston in another match-up which will impact the outcome of the contest.
There are no easy games in SSN and today will be no different, so make sure you get right behind our team, make lots of noise and let’s attack another win at our Green Fortress.
PRINCIPAL PARTNER
SEMI FINAL, 2023 – RAC ARENA FEVER 64 DEFEATED VIXENS 57
ROUND 1, 2023 – RAC ARENA FEVER 62 DEFEATED VIXENS 61
ROUND 8, 2023 – JOHN CAIN ARENA VIXENS 74 DEFEATED FEVER 73
GRAND FINAL, 2022 – RAC ARENA FEVER 70 DEFEATED VIXENS 59
Dan Ryan Head Coach Head Coach
Fever’s top of the table clash for First Nations Round
West Coast Fever will face the second placed Melbourne Vixens in the highly anticipated top of the table clash this Sunday at RAC Arena.
Fever are coming off the back of a thrilling one-goal win against the Thunderbirds at home, maintaining their place at the top of the SSN ladder.
The Vixens suffered their first loss of the season last week, going down to the Sunshine Coast Lightning by seven goals and officially separating first and second place.
The last time the two sides met was in last season’s semi final at RAC Arena, where Fever came away victors 64-57. While their two regular season matches were both decided by one goal.
Round 7 is First Nations Round and Fever will wear their new 2024 Indigenous Dress featuring elements from the Club’s new indigenous Artwork ‘Spirit of the Fever’ designed by Jilalga Murray of JILALGA DESIGNS.
The Match Day Partner will be Shooting Stars, an initiative of Glass Jar Australia. Shooting Stars empowers Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander girls and women across Western and South Australia to make informed choices about their education and employment journey, helping them shoot for the stars.
RD7 - RAC ARENA SUNDAY 26 MAY, 2PM
LIVE ON Foxtel and Kayo VS
New Vixen Sophie Garbin will be testing her shooting abilities against Fever’s Round 6 MVP Kadie Ann-Dehaney, who last week managed two intercepts and 10 deflections against the Thunderbirds.
Sunday Aryang and Fran Williams will also utilise their bond in defense to block the shooting and attacking capabilities of Garbin and fellow Diamond Kiera Austin.
Shanice Beckford will use her speed and feeding skills to lure Jo Westen out of the goal circle and aim for those super shots.
While Emily Mannix and former Fever Premiership Player Rudi Ellis will come up against the powers of Jhaniele FowlerNembhard and her game winning accuracy for which she continues to lead the League.
Head Coach Dan Ryan said the Vixens are a highly skilled team who are well drilled and cohesive about all aspects of their game.
“We always have fierce battles against the Vixens, the quality of the game is always up there and the turnover rate is really low, both teams are really hard to get the ball off when they’re up and about,” he said.
“First Nations Round is always something we really enjoy, embracing the Indigenous culture and our heritage within our club, and the girls enjoy wearing their special dresses.”
QUARTER TIME ACTIVATION
Hear how the uniquely Aboriginal methodology of yarning is implemented at today’s Match Day Partner Shooting Stars to collect research, feedback and recommendations that inform everything Shooting Stars does.
This will also include in-stadium interviews with Shooting Stars participants to discuss how the Shooting Stars program has benefitted them.
HALF TIME ACTIVATION
Two Grassroots Sites will take part in a Woolworths NetSetGO game. Please cheer on Narrogin and Mandurah Yirra Djindas as they take to the court.
THREE QUARTER TIME ACTIVATION
The HCF Decibel Meter is back! Just how loud can the Green Army be?
Plus enjoy our West Coast Fever dance crew.
Key Timings
12.30PM – DOORS OPEN FOR GREEN ROOM
12.45PM – MAIN DOORS OPEN
1.30PM – PLAYER ARENA CALL ON
1.34PM – WELCOME TO COUNTRY
1.37PM – PLAYER WARM UP & ON COURT ENTERTAINMENT
2.00PM – CENTRE PASS
Sunshine came to RAC Arena and it was in West Coast Fever’s favour as they continued their perfect start to the season with a nail biting finish.
The Adelaide Thunderbirds started the game firing, taking an early lead in the first quarter, resulting in a highly motived Fever defensive side.
Kadie-Ann Dehaney had a huge first quarter, taking an intercept and four deflections as she kept the pressure on in the Thunderbirds goal circle.
Our Sunshine girls in goals proved that even against their national teammates they are in it to win it.
Jhaniele Fowler-Nembhard took 12 goals while Shanice Beckford earnt a super shot to put Fever in the lead at quarter time.
The Fever midcourt impressed in the second quarter, queen of Feeds Alice Teague-Neeld managed six while Jess Anstiss and Jordan Cransberg had three each.
Fowler-Nembhard had her first super shot of the night to go along with her 10 other goals for the quarter, assisted by Beckford’s four feeds and a deflection.
Cransberg used her centre court bib to the fullest in
the third quarter utilising her speed to take an intercept and 13 feeds.
Dehaney continued her pressure in the goal circle with three deflections, making Thunderbird Goal Shooter Romelda Aiken-George work for every shot she took.
Another super shot from Beckford, alongside FowlerNembhard’s 13 goals saw the scores even at the final change.
The 7,824 fans in attendance were on the edge of their seat for the entire last quarter, the win looking like it could go to either side.
Fever managed to slow the Thunderbirds’ momentum with an intercept from Sunday Aryang and a quick save of an almost out of court ball from Cransberg.
Anstiss’s eight feeds were matched by her three deflections, the captain consistently putting herself on the line for the ball.
Fowler-Nembhard hunted down that win in circle with 15 goals, ensuring six wins from six games for the Fever.
Fever now look to continue their undefeated streak next week against the Melbourne Vixens at RAC Arena on Sunday May 26.
The last time West Coast Fever took on the Melbourne VIxens, they booked their place in the Preliminary Final thanks to a thrilling 64-57 win at RAC Arena in the Minor Semi Final.
Moments that Mattered
With the score difference just two in favour of Fever heading into the final four minutes, the home side pulled out a clutch performance on all areas of the court with their season on the line. They forced multiple turnovers in the defensive circle and converted them into what would be match winning goals.
Fever Vice Captain Jess Anstiss marked her 100th game in green today when she stepped out on court. The premiership winning Wing Defence helped Fever move the ball from defence to offence when the time came.
Q1: WCF 15 | VIX 14
As expected, the game got off to a tight start with neither team budging. Fever was the first to give the ball away as Vixens were ruthless in their conversion of Fever errors.
Vixens got out to a four-goal lead before the Diamonds duo of Sunday Aryang and Courtney Bruce flipped the script and got Fever back in the game.
As the Power Five came through an incredible effort from Aryang to gain the ball was converted by Sasha Glasgow with a Super Shot for Fever to take the lead.
Q2: WCF 32 | VIX 30
The game stayed on centre pass for the first half of the quarter as the Vixens shuffled their defensive third and brought on former Fever player Olivia Lewis at
Vixens were again the first to force a mistake but the first turnover for the Melbourne side was quickly negated by Bruce.
Despite this, Vixens still managed to forge a small lead which was almost instantly rectified by Fever after a well-timed time out called by Dan Ryan.
When the Power Five came, Fever gained the ball again thanks to a Defensive Rebound from Captain Bruce which resulted in her team leading by two goals at half time.
Scores remained close in the third quarter as the Vixens drew level early in the third term. From then on, neither team gave anything away until the Power Five when Fever forced a turnover.
Fever excelled in the final five minutes, boosting their lead to six goals thanks to a Sasha Glasgow Super Shot. Kiera Austin managed to put in a two-pointer of her own to keep the lead to four goals going into the final quarter.
Fever got the lead back out to six goals early in the quarter, but the Vixens were determined not to give up, reducing the margin to just two at the start of the Power Five.
From then on Fever dominated play, Aryang well and truly sealed the game in the final minute with a huge Intercept to bring the crowd to their feet.
Fever will now fly to Sydney to face the NSW Swifts on Saturday Night at Qudos Bank Arena for a place in the Grand Final against the Adelaide Thunderbirds.
Sunday 16 june, 2pm wst rac arena click
