Super Netball 2025: Jhaniele Fowler-Nembhard looms as difference for West Coast Fever against NSW Swifts

Every single team in Super Netball has tried and failed to stop Jhaniele Fowler-Nembhard. She’s the world’s best shooter who has torn the competition apart. Fever have won every game with her in the goal circle, while their only two losses were at the start of the season when the shooter was on the sidelines. And Sunday’s major semifinal is shaping as no different, with the Jamaican superstar looming as the key for West Coast Fever’s premiership aspirations. If the Fever beat the NSW Swifts at RAC Arena on Sunday they will play off for their second premiership later this month at John Cain Arena. Fowler-Nembhard said she was excited for her sixth finals series in eight seasons wearing the green dress. “I am super blessed and excited to have this opportunity once again and am looking forward to it,” she said. And they’re set to once again play in front of a bumper crowd after breaking the home-and-away attendance record in consecutive weeks leading up to the finals. “It just shows everyone that our crowd supports us a lot and by that we give them a good performance week-in, week-out,” Fowler-Nembhard said. “We’re very happy that we’re able to and they come out and support us regardless. Having them come out and support us in such massive attendance is really good.” The Jamaican shooter has been close to career-best form, topping the league for goals for an eighth consecutive year with 724 goals despite missing the first two games of the season. And the toughest job in netball has just got harder against for the Swifts who will be without one of their tall defenders in Teigan O’Shannassy for the finals series because of a back injury. It leaves Australian ‘keeper Sarah Klau with the unenviable task of tackling Fowler-Nembhard — a task she’s all to familiar with having faced off against the shooter in both Super Netball and on the international stage. Renowned as the world’s best shooter, the Fever have won a record 12 consecutive Super Netball games since Fowler-Nembhard returned in round three and will be gunning for a spot in their fourth grand final when they take on the Swifts. Fowler-Nembhard was sorely missed in Fever’s round one defeat to the Swifts, but was at her brilliant best when they got their revenge with an 11-goal win in round nine, scoring 71 goals from 72 attempts on O’Shannassy. It was a game when Fever established themselves as the team to beat and Fowler-Nembhard, 35, said she was ready to tackle the Klau when they meet this weekend. “It is like going against any other defender, making sure I am doing my job first and once I am doing that I should be fine,” she said. Former Fever coach Stacey Marinkovich said Fowler-Nembhard was too difficult to stop alone for her Diamonds defender in Klau. “It’s definitely going to have to rely on the Swifts’ collective defence,” she told The West Australian. “Jhaniele is a phenomenal athlete and she has such stature out on court that she’s a hard one to beat one-on-one. “It’s going to be the creativity of the defenders out in front that give Sarah a good line to the ball and some good vision that she can go out and hunt and contest and confuse that space. It’s going to have to be a collective defence when you come up against the Fever attack line.” Fowler-Nembhard — who is on track for an unprecedented sixth Super Netball most valuable player award — said the secret to her success as a shooter in the green dress was her teammates in front of her. “My secret is Alice (Teague-Neeld), Jordan (Cransberg), Shanice (Beckford), Liv (Wilkinson), Fran (Williams), Sunday (Aryang), Kadie-Ann (Dehaney), Zoe (Cransberg), Kelsey (Brown) when she is in training with us and Ruth (Aryang) — that’s my secret, I have them,” she said. “It’s about supporting them in whatever way I can to make sure they know they have that support and all the authority to play their game and be strong, knowing they have us (leaders) surrounding them and backing them in.”