Sunshine Coast Lightning loom as this season’s greatest Tremendous Netball improver after beginning their marketing campaign with a shock 65-50 trouncing of the Giants at USC Stadium.
From the opening go on Sunday, the reigning wood spooners blew the Giants – who made final 12 months’s preliminary remaining – off the court docket, making certain a dream debut for rookie coach Belinda Reynolds.
Tall Jamaican defender Kadie-Ann Dehany was sensational on the final line for the Lightning, partnering expertly with legendary South African defender Karla Pretorius, who was terrific in her first look within the competitors since 2021.
The pair mixed for 16 deflections and 6 intercepts, consistently placing the Giants’ shooters off their sport.
“I did not know this was Lightning’s first (spherical one) dwelling sport for over seven years so we positively needed to placed on a efficiency for the house crowd,” Dehaney mentioned.
“I believe we did that right now.
“Massive shout-out to B (Reynolds). She put within the arduous work for us to have the ability to put on this efficiency right now.”
Dehaney and Pretorius’ defensive brilliance, coupled with some slick midfield motion, allowed Diamond Cara Koenen (50 objectives) to prosper within the taking pictures circle.
After forging an early four-goal head begin, the house facet stormed forward 11-5 and infrequently relented.
The Giants have been with out injured skipper Jo Harten, extremely lacking her first ever sport for the membership.
In Harten’s absence, Jamie-Lee Worth stepped into the function of performing captain and – repeatedly and inspirationally – performed a lone hand in attempting to pull the Giants again into the sport.
The guests, marshalled by Worth, briefly stole the lead on an 8-1 run late within the first time period as Matisse Letherbarrow quickly broke freed from Dehaney, earlier than the Lightning regained management.
Up 16-13 at quarter-time, Sunshine Coast pulled forward 32-22 at halftime after dominating the second interval 16-9.
Koenen drained 16 with out a miss within the third time period to assist prolong the Lightning’s buffer to 48-34 at three-quarter time, a lead which was by no means in peril of being reeled in.
The Giants confirmed some resolve within the fourth stanza however have been in the end undone by lopsided penalty (64-33), turnover (29-15) and rebounding (2-9) counts.
