Season 2024 stats wrap: Attack

By Amelia Barnes

It was a big year for the Melbourne Vixens’ shooters. Across the 2024 season, the team’s goalers recorded some of their personal best performances, and broke franchise records in the process.

Kiera Austin

2024 was Kiera Austin’s year. Playing her third season with the Melbourne Vixens, and her seventh overall in SSN, the goal attack smashed almost all her personal best stats, recording more points, goals, goal assists, feeds, and centre pass receives than in any of her previous seasons.

The numbers show Austin as the most dominant goal attack of the 2024 SSN season. Out of all the specialist goal attacks in the league, she played the most minutes (2nd in the league overall), scored the most goals and points (7th in the league for both), made the most feeds into the circle (15th in the league), and took the most centre pass receives (3rd in the league).

An attacking player known for her defensive prowess, Austin recorded 11 intercepts and 18 gains throughout the season – the highest numbers of any dedicated attacker in the competition after Tayla Williams of the Adelaide Thunderbirds (12 intercepts, 19 gains).

Austin also etched her way into the Vixens’ franchise records by successfully shooting the most super shots in a season. She sank 70 shot super shots across the 2024 season – 25 more than the previous franchise record set by herself last year – and did so at 60.9% accuracy, up from 52.3% in 2023.

Former Vixen Rahni Samason still holds the franchise and overall SSN record for the most accurate super shot shooting in a season (excluding records of four attempted super shots or less), shooting 14 super shots in 2021 at 73.7%, and 26 super shots in 2022 at 70.3%, ahead of Gabrielle Sinclair in third place who shot 47 super shots at 69.1% this season for the Melbourne Mavericks.

Austin’s efforts in 2024 scored her a personal best 1099.5 Nissan Net Points (7th highest in the league) across the season.

She had more NNP than any other goal attack with an average of 64.7 NNP per game across the 2024 season, earning her a spot in the NNP Team of the Year.

Two of Austin’s games were among the top five highest NNP scores for a goal attack in an individual match this season: Round 9 (129 NNP) and Round 5 (125.5 NNP).

Her career average NNP per game score is now 50.3 – the second highest of any current Vixen.

Austin was named the Melbourne Vixens’ MVP for the 2024 season. She was previously MVP of the GIANTS in 2020.

Sophie Garbin

The 2024 season was a long time coming for Sophie Garbin, who assumed a starting goal shooter position for the first time in her seven-year SSN career.

The change in position saw Garbin record far more goals and points than ever before. In 2024, she scored 617 points (2nd best in the league) – a huge jump from her previous personal best of 159 in 2020.

Garbin broke two Melbourne Vixens SSN-era franchise records during the season by scoring the most points in a single game (54 points in Round 8) and recording the most offensive rebounds in a season (54).

Playing goal shooter, Garbin managed to step up her defensive game. In 2024, she equalled her personal record of six intercepts in a season – five more than any other goal shooter in the league in 2024.

Garbin ended the season with 1076 NNP (11th in the league) – a 136% increase on her previous personal best NNP score of 453.5 playing for the NSW Swifts in 2020.

She had the third-highest average NNP score of the league’s goal shooters in 2024 at 63.3 per game – a 108% increase on her career average of 30.3 NNP per game.

Garbin also achieved the highest individual-game NNP score of her career in Round 8 with 119.5.

Lily Graham

Despite limited court time, Lily Graham made her mark in her debut SSN season.

The GA/GS’s breakout came in Round 13, when Graham took the court at the end of the second quarter to replace Garbin.

Graham outperformed the starting Vixens and Diamonds’ goal shooter in this game, going on to shoot 17 goals, including six super shots, in 29 minutes of netball.

When Graham was named the Vixens’ permanent replacement player in March 2024, the then 18-year-old became the youngest contracted athlete in SSN history by almost 11 months. The previous youngest contracted SSN player was Sophie Fawns when she permanently signed to the NSW Swifts in 2022.

All statistics courtesy of Champion Data