The Collingwood Magpies seem unable to shake their orange curse, clocking an embarrassing fourteenth loss from 15 Super Netball matches against the Giants in Sydney on Saturday night.
The Melbourne team’s 59-55 loss bore ugly parallels to a stadium pie – hot, cold, messy and spilling all over the place.
Former Giants captain Kimberlee Green repeatedly called the round five clash “messy” and “scrappy” on the broadcast.
“We haven’t been able to get connected. We need to come together, work together and play our own brand,” Collingwood Magpies captain Ash Brazill admitted at half time.
Did you know you can watch 2 marquee Suncorp Super Netball matches LIVE & FREE every round on Kayo Freebies? Join now and start streaming instantly >
Giants land first win against Tbirds | 01:23
But the Giants seemed to thrive in chaos. After losing three on the trot to start their season, the team this week returned to the slick form that saw them reach a preliminary final in 2022, and a grand final the year before.
A fast start sent them to a double-digit lead in the second quarter, which they clung onto despite a late charge in the final quarter from Collingwood.
“We’ve had two wins in a row (rounds four and five) but we need to keep winning because we didn’t have the best start. We’ll take it game by game, quarter by quarter,” said Giants centre Jamie-Lee Price after the match.
The Magpies finished with 54 penalties to the Giants’ 39; and were intercepted twice as often as the home side.
Parmy Army on the march
With World Cup team selections forecast to be announced in round seven, Australian Diamonds’ selectors Stacey Marinkovich and Anne Sargeant were conspicuously seated in the stands of Ken Rosewall arena.
Earning her first Diamonds’ selection for the England Series last year, Giants wing defender Amy Parmenter has been finding form since last week. Multiple fingertip receives, flying redistributions and impossible cross-court intercepts will have caught selectors’ eyes again this week. She finished with three intercepts, four gains and a clean sheet of no turnovers.
Alongside her, player of the match Jamie-Lee Price showed why she has been a Diamonds’ squad member since 2018. She earned a match-high 113 Nissan net points.
Most impressive was the pair’s total shutdown of 2022 Best and Fairest player, Collingwood’s Kelsey Browne.
Super Shots stymied
Much has been made of the Giants’ overreliance on the two-point Super Shot in the final five minutes of each quarter.
However, this week it was Collingwood Magpies’ coach Nicole Richardson urging her team to claw back the 12-point difference in the final quarter with two-pointer – to little avail..
Collingwood attempted 14 Super Shots and netted only six. Meanwhile, the Giants’ power duo of Jo Harten and Sophie Dwyer attempted a modest six and came away with three.
