The Australian Netball Championships semi finals begin on Saturday, with the two Victorian teams cruising through the pool matches unbeaten.
Victorian Fury and the Collingwood Magpies head into separate semi finals on Saturday after winning all four of their group matches this week in Traralgon.
The Fury, reigning champions from the last time the competition was held in 2019, will take on the Queensland Sapphires – who lost just one game to Collingwood this week.
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The Magpies will face the Southern Force – who like the Sapphires lost just one match in their pool, to the Fury.
The Sunshine Coast Lightning will face the Swifts in the first match of the day in semi final 4.
Both the Lightning and Swifts have endured tough weeks, with the Lightning especially suffering a massive blow with star goaler Reilley Batcheldor going down with a likely ACL injury on Thursday.
The Super Netball rising star went down untouched in the match against the Southern Force and immediately clutched at her knee.
It’s a shocking blow for the 20-year-old, who has already missed a year with an ACL injury back in 2019.
The two winless teams of the week, Tasmania and the Darters will meet in semi final 4 before the West Coast Fever take on the Giants Academy in semi final 3 from 3pm AEST.
The semi finals to reach the ANC decider, Magpies v Force and Fury v Sapphires, will be held as the final matches of the day from 5pm and 7pm AEST respectively.
The winners of the two games will head through to Sunday’s final with the losers to play off for third and fourth spot.
The Magpies have been the highest scoring team of the week, with 201cm Jane Cook dominating in attack.
The goal shooter has 133 goals at 98 per cent in four games – some with limited minutes.
They’ll face a Force attack end led by Adelaide Thunderbirds 2023 signing Lucy Austin who has 112 goals at 92 per cent in just three games.
But the Force are without defender Molly Watson who went down with a likely ACL injury in the same match as Batcheldor.
In eerily similar scenes, Watson was left lying on the court clearly distressed and clutching at her heavily strapped knee on Thursday.
In Watson’s absence, Jessie Grenvold has stepped up to be the competition leader for intercepts.
The goal keeper has a remarkable 20 intercepts in just three games.
The Fury v Sapphires semi final will pit Emma Ryde against rising Firebirds training partner Charlie Bell.
Ryde has 129 goals at 95 per cent from just three games while Bell has 127 goals at 91 per cent – like Cook, some at limited minutes.
Bell will have her hands full against Fury defender, and Vixens’ squad member, Olivia Lewis who sits second for intercepts this tournament.
