An epic final for the ages
NETBALL: You will not see a better game of netball, let alone in a grand final.
They said last year’s grand final could not be beaten. Those people were wrong.
It was said the NSW Swifts could not suffer a defeat any more painful.
Yesterday, that is exactly what happened as the Queensland Firebirds, for the second year in a row, crushed the Swifts 69-67 in the most unbelievable fashion – after extra-time – thanks to a clutch goal from Romelda Aiken.
Caitlin Thwaites scored a goal with four seconds remaining – the Swifts’ third of the last minute – in regular time to level scores before Stephanie Wood, with the final shot of extra-time, lipped out to put everyone’s jaw flat on the ground at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre.
The clock was then stopped, with the first team to go ahead by two goals crowned champions.
It was Aiken who delivered the killer blow to the Swifts in an even more painful fashion than last year. Emotions spilled out on court as the Swifts players began to contemplate how it could have all gone wrong again.
The Swifts blew a threequarter lead and were ahead for a good portion of extra-time before Aiken’s three goals to finish the game etched another a famous moment into the last chapter of the trans-Tasman netball league.
The Firebirds are hopeful of entering netball’s new era of an Australian competition with the core of players who gave the side their third championship win on Sunday.
Firebirds coach Roselee Jencke believed the Firebirds could withstand an expected recruitment frenzy from cashedup new franchises backed by AFL and NRL clubs and keep their dominance rolling.
‘‘(The players) know how they’ve built a really strong, tight-knit group. I think they do want to be able to keep pursuing success and excellence,’’ Jencke said.
Despite becoming the first player in the history of the competition to surpass 5000 goals, Aiken was well below her season average accuracy of 87.5 per cent and was seemingly rattled by NSW enforcer Sharni Layton, who kept her in check.
But the Jamaican finished brilliantly, draining the winning shot under the ring to elicit a huge roar from the sold-out crowd of 10,312 - the biggest attendance for a match in Queensland, and the thirdbiggest in trans-Tasman netball.
Jencke said the magnitude of the occasion got to Aiken.
‘‘She’s our spearhead and with that comes pressure,’’ she said.
‘‘We just needed to keep the positivity there. To finish off that way when she probably had the yips for the majority of the game, I’m just really rapt.’’
Swifst captain Kim Green rued the result.
‘‘It hurts just as much (as last year),’’ she said.
‘‘We had our opportunities to win today and we just didn’t take them.
‘‘We build a season for eight months and it comes down to this one day to really perform and I think we did ... but just weren’t able to get over the line.’’