Victories against the Sunshine Coast Thunder (56-43) and ACU Brisbane North Cougars (66-63) have marked the unbeaten Jets as the competition’s team to beat.
“It was a big weekend for us, especially losing Dan (Taylor), and no Hulita (Veve) for the two games. I knew we needed to really work as a team and dig deep,” Jets coach Paula Stuart said.
With Hulita Veve stepping up onto the Suncorp Super Netball court as a Queensland Firebirds replacement player, and Danielle Taylor carrying a serious knee injury, the Jets came out firing against the Thunder on Saturday at Nissan Arena.
“Without Hulita or Dan, the core group really wanted to stand up,” Stuart said.
“But my rookie, Naomi Solomanu, is also really giving it a go. She came on at wing attack in her first season in Sapphire, and is learning all the time so we’re going to start to see her shine.”
A Lily Gribble intercept secured Sunday night’s round five electric come-from-behind win over the Cougars, which Stuart described as one of the fastest games of netball she’s seen.
“That’s the game you want to show kids,” Stuart said.
“Such a fast, great game. The intensity was there the whole time. It was basically like the grand final last year. Cougars gave us a good run and probably the hardest.”
Trailing the entire game, Stuart said a momentum shift occurred when she opted for a moving circle over her traditional holding shooter.
“We were around six goals down at one stage but as soon as the moving circle came on we went four-down, two-down, four-down, two-down for the next 29 minutes,” Stuart said.
“I only thought we had it won with 20 seconds to go and it could have easily changed then. Even if we’d lost, I couldn’t have asked for anything more.”
Meantime, the Thunder were able to put Saturday’s disappointing loss to the Jets behind them to record a 57-50 round five victory over the Bond University Bull Sharks on Sunday night.
“It was a massive relief,” Thunder coach Simone Nalatu said.
“We really needed to win after two losses in a row. I’m most proud of the fact we stuck to what we said we were going to do.”
Nalatu said the double-header was helpful, in that they were able to almost immediately adjust to what went wrong in Saturday’s loss to the Jets.
“We were really earnest in the changeroom and had to be, there was a lot of time to dwell so we had a frank and honest conversation in a good way,” she said.
“We were really clear on what we needed to do and luckily we didn’t have to wait a week. We really hurt after the loss, the way in which we lost. We weren’t good enough in things we should have been, and against the Bull Sharks we were much better in those areas and in the moments when it got tough.”
The Thunder were without Bridie Condren for Sunday’s game, after she rolled her ankle in the last five minutes against the Jets, but it opened up an opportunity for a 16-year-old rising star.
“Jada Delaney played the whole game at goal keeper and was best on court,” Nalatu said.
“She killed it, getting us some really important balls.”
The team has also had to juggle without the experience of Ava Black, who recently has also been called up to Suncorp Super Netball to play for Sunshine Coast Lightning.
The Thunder now look ahead to a round six clash with the Gold Coast Titans, who share the Jets’ success as the only two teams to have come away with two wins from the double-header weekend.
Temepara Bailey’s Titans got away with a 55-49 victory over an exciting Brisbane South Wildcats side, before recording a relentless 63-38 win over the Carina Leagues Club Tigers on Sunday.
For a full list of the weekend’s results, as well as the live ladder, please click HERE.
