THE PAST SET TO POWER FIREBIRDS’ FINALS PUSH
FIREBIRDS captain Gabi Simpson says the best way the club can honour its past is by making sure finals netball is in Queensland’s immediate future.
The Firebirds will stage their annual ‘‘retro’’ match on Sunday when they host the Adelaide Thunderbirds at Boondall.
The game-day presentation will feature a 1980s music playlist with spectators encouraged to dress up in the fashions of the era when style took a back seat to fluorescent colours.
Simpson got into the flashback spirit by donning a black-and-red Firebirds foundation dress complete with flames from the late 1990s in the build-up.
But it will be back to the purple uniform and down to business come Sunday when the Firebirds need to secure the maximum eight competition points.
The Firebirds are fourth with two regular season rounds remaining.
The fifth-placed Sunshine Coast have the same number of competition points but fall out of the top four on percentage.
“Retro round is great in terms of reflecting on where the Firebirds have come from and the people that have shaped the team that we are now and the culture that we have,’’ Simpson said.
“That gives you that extra fire in the belly to perform. But we need to make sure we hit the court in our best form this week to take as many bonus points as possible because the ladder is so tight.”
“There’s eight points between first and fifth so these next two rounds will be the difference.”