An historic season has come to an end for the Melbourne Mavericks after a four-goal defeat to the West Coast Fever in the minor semi-final in Perth.
Playing in Super Netball finals for the first time in the club's short three-year existence, the Mavs started strong and led by as many as five in the opening term.
Despite their early dominance, it was not meant to be with the Fever overcoming early wobbles to secure their spot in the 2026 preliminary final against the Vixens.
The end of the third quarter proved the turning point for the hosts as they extended their lead to four goals.
With thirteen minutes left in the match, the Fever lead was seven and their momentum only continued to build.
The Mavs never gave up and reduced the deficit to three with two minutes on the clock, but the super shots just would not land when they needed to with the final score 56-52.
"It hurts a lot," Mavs captain Amy Parmenter said afterwards. "We have grown so much over the last three months and to get to the finals is a huge achievement. We have a lot of lessons learnt today but this hurts right now.
"It’s not over until the last whistle and we went for everything. We just wanted to go out there and win. We had nothing to lose and we put everything out there. It’s amazing we got so close considering we’re such a new group. I’m so proud of the effort out there.
"The biggest positive is that we got all 10 of us out there. We have so much depth in our squad and we come with so much variety. Here’s so much strength in that. Our variations will be a strength that grows and grows."
It’s been an incredible third season for the Mavericks who have added numerous historic chapters to their short history under the guidance of Gerard Murphy in his first season as coach.
There was early heartbreak in the season when Tara Hinchliffe ruptured her ACL and saw her season cruelly ended in round three.
It forced the squad to adjust and handed Charlotte Sexton a contract as her replacement.
Record numbers of wins have been recorded as have membership numbers with Mavericks fans turning out in their thousands across all 14 rounds of the home and away season.
The squad has also had three players included in the 2026-27 Diamonds squad with Jamie-Lee Price bound for Glasgow for the Commonwealth Games next month.
Amy Parmenter and Jessie Grenvold will travel as reserves for Australia while Uneeq Palavi will represent Tonga.
Thank you for being part of our historic season Mavs fans! So much to be proud of, so much to build on and so much to be excited about.
