The Melbourne Mavericks have made a clean sweep of their Tasmanian pre-season match, after recording a 69-56 win over the Giants in Launceston on Saturday afternoon.
In their second match of the pre-season trip to the Apple Isle, the teams played a full match under normal Suncorp Super Netball (SSN) conditions; four 15-minutes quarters, with the Super Shot in play during the last five minutes of each quarter.
Similar to their approach in Ulverstone, a different player occupied a different position across almost every quarter of the match, including Molly Jovic, who took to the court in centre in the first and final terms of the match, after not taking to the court on Thursday night due to load management.
It was a physical first term, with Tayla Fraser in wing attack producing some great long feeds into Shimona Jok at goal shooter. Starting the game out in goal attack, Uneeq Palavi, made the first Super Shot of the game right on the quarter time buzzer, to see the Mavs take an 18-12 lead at the first break.
With lots of combination changes at quarter time, it was a messy start to the second quarter from both teams. However, Liv Lewis coming on in goal keeper built a lot of pressure over the shot and in the circle for the Giants, allowing the Mavs to turnover lots of ball in the second half of the term.
Matisse Letherbarrow was consistent in the circle all day for the Giants, however, and two sunk Super Shots late in the term brought the Giants back into the match a little bit, with a 34-27 margin at the main break.
Switching up the status quo with Amy Parmenter in centre and Maisie Nankivell in wing defence, the pair combined well in the third quarter for multiple intercepts. The Mavs had 13 gains within the third term, which were perhaps not utilised to their fullest extent, with the attacking end finding it a bit more challenging to work the ball into the circle.
With neither team fully controlling the pace of the game, balls being thrown away due to frantic play, and the Giants again utilising the Super Shot well in the last five minutes of the quarter, it was a slimmer 49-44 margin heading into the final term.
Mavs captain, Parmenter, continued her domination of the second half, throwing her body on the line to win some crucial ball for the Mavs. Jok and Nyah Allen combined really well in the circle, improving on their performance from Launceston to add a further 20 points to the team’s score in the final term. The well-drilled midcourt of Nankivell, Jovic and Parmenter also combined well in the last term to inject some pace back into the game.
Mavs head coach, Tracey Neville, said overall she was really pleased her team’s performance in Tassie.
“I think we got an opportunity to get a lot of combinations out there,” Neville said post-match. “I think there were some really great things that we did, but there’s obviously lots of things we need to work on, but I think the players learnt a lot and it was a great finish going into Christmas.”
On individual player performances, “I think Shim[ona Jok] and Kim [Jenner] were outstanding,” Neville continued, “[and] I think Kris[tiana Manu’a] has been really outstanding over the two games, I think she has been one of the Player of the Matches. But I also like to see that our shooters are having a little bit of a go of it – Uneeq’s not played a lot in goal attack at this level, and I think she learnt a lot from herself today.”
Overall, Neville said it had been a really valuable trip to Tassie for the Mavs.
“I think it’s been a great experience for us. I think changing our training environment coming to Tasmania also doing some things outside of netball – we’ve also been integrating into the communities, we’ve also been gone to see a few penguins, a few monkeys - I think that’s really important that we also enjoy the journey as well as try and get something out of it [on court].”
The Mavs will now return to Melbourne for another week of their pre-season training block, before breaking for the Christmas break.
