Super Netball 2026: West Coast Fever blow early lead to lose by 13 goals to powerhouse Adelaide Thunderbirds

A wasteful West Coast Fever have blown an opportunity to cause an early season upset, coughing up a four-goal second-quarter lead to lose by 13 at the hands of early premiership fancies Adelaide Thunderbirds.

Thunderbirds’ newest superstar shooter Elmere van der Berg backed up her impressive debut with another dominance display, equalling her own club record with 59 goals in the 66-53 victory at Adelaide Entertainment Centre on Saturday night.

At the other end of the court, Fever’s shooting combination of Romelda Aiken-George and Sasha Glasgow looked far below their best, being well beaten by Adelaide defenders Shamera Sterling-Humphrey (six deflections and 10 gains) and Latanya Wilson (four gains and four deflections).

Fever will fly home ruing their missed opportunities, with Aiken-George (29 goals from 37 attempts) and Sasha Glasgow (22 goals) both missing routine shots they’d normally be expected to score.

It summed up a horror night for Fever, who were wasteful across the court with an uncharacteristic 19 general play turnovers to Adelaide’s seven.

Fever were up for the fight early, matching the powerhouse Thunderbirds across most of the court.

Unfortunately, Aiken-George’s radar was off, scoring only eight goals from 15 shots while at other end van der Berg was nearly perfect with 15 from 17 to keep Adelaide within a goal at the first break.

Fever continued their momentum heading into the second term and led by as many as four goals after seven minutes, stunning the parochial Adelaide crowd.

The Thunderbirds’ star defensive duo of Sterling-Humphrey and Wilson began to work their way into the game and it caused Fever several problems as they proved disruptive for the visitors’ flow forward of centre.

At the other end Fever were unable to stop van der Berg and it forced a strange re-shuffle from coach Dan Ryan.

Ryan benched captain Jess Anstiss and brought on tall defender Caitlyn Brown into wing defence looking for extra height to put pressure on Adelaide’s feeds into the circle.

It mattered little as Fever coughed up six general play turnovers for the term and ultimately their lead, finding themselves down 32-27 at the main break.

Ryan continued to swing the changes in the third, bringing Anstiss into centre and moving Alice Teague-Neeld from wing attack into goal attack at the expense of last week’s hero Glasgow.

Fever’s to unforced blunders mounted still and van der Berg made sure they didn’t waste it when she was given the chance under the post.

Even the double team didn’t worry the South African shooter, who was simply brutalising Fever’s defence, while she was well assisted by Georgie Horjus who had 37 goal assists and 48 feeds.

Aiken-George was benched twice in the last half, with training partner Sloan Burton called up to make her debut following in the footsteps of her mother Julie-Ann Burton (nee Sloan) who is a former Perth Orioles co-captain.

Glasgow also some rhythm after half-time, scoring five of her six super goals to ensure the margin didn’t blow out to embarrassing proportions.

Fever will now look to rebound against Giants at RAC Arena next Sunday.