Season 2024 stats wrap: Defence

By Amelia Barnes

The Vixens’ experienced defenders, combined with new teammate Rudi Ellis, stepped up their game in 2024, working to achieve individual records and a huge jump in collective intercepts season-on-season.

Emily Mannix

The 2024 season was one of Mannix’s career best, and unbeknownst to fans until after the grand final, she did it all while pregnant with her first child.

Mannix set the Vixens’ franchise record in the SSN era for most gains in a single game (11) in 2023, which she equalled in Round 3 this year. This match was a standout performance for Mannix, who played across goal defence and goal keeper to record 6 intercepts, 1 deflection resulting in a gain, and 3 pickups. She ended the match with 126 Nissan Net Points (NNP) – her second-highest NNP score for a single game. 59.5 of those points were achieved during the first quarter alone, where Mannix collected 2 intercepts, 5 deflections, and 1 pickup.

Mannix was the only goal keeper in the league to sit alongside 2023 SSN MVP Shamera Sterling-Humphrey of the Adelaide Thunderbirds in the top five NNP game scores by a goal keeper this season. Her Round 3 performance came in second.

Round 6 was another outstanding game for Mannix, resulting in her individual fourth-highest NNP game score ever (113). Across the match she made 4 intercepts, 3 deflections resulting in a gain, 3 rebounds, and 1 pick up for 10 total gains.

Mannix’s season-average NNP score was 43.6 – the fourth highest of all goal keepers in the league – and up on her career-average of 41.2 NNP. She ended the season with a total 741.5 NNP – her most since 2019.

Mannix still holds the Vixens franchise records for the most gains (77), intercepts (41) and deflections (77) in a single SSN season – all recorded in 2017.

Rudi Ellis

The Vixens uncovered a diamond in Rudi Ellis during the 2024 SSN season. In her first year as a fully contracted player for the team, Ellis played more minutes (621) than in all her previous four SSN seasons combined, and earned herself a callup and debut for the Australian Diamonds in the process.

Throughout the 2024 season, Ellis broke almost all her personal best records. In 16 matches, she made 40 gains (more than double her previous best in a season), 14 intercepts, 41 deflections, and only 2 unforced turnovers.

The 190cm goal keeper made significant efforts on improving her footwork to get around the body, which was also reflected in her stats. She made 10 deflections resulting in a gain this season – up on her previous personal best of 3 – and 14 rebounds, up on her previous personal best of 4.

Ellis achieved her highest-ever NNP score in Round 9 with 82.5 NNP, and smashed her personal record for gains in a match with 9 in Round 14 (her previous best was 5).

Ellis finished the season with a total 403.5 NNP – a 249% increase on her previous season-best NNP score of 115.5, earned in her rookie 2020 season with the Queensland Firebirds.

Jo Weston

Always a consistent performer, Jo Weston led a dynamic defensive lineup in 2024, earning her third place in the Sharelle McMahon Medal (Vixens MVP).

Her biggest game of the season was Round 4, when Weston recorded 7 gains, 3 intercepts, 4 deflections, 3 rebounds, 1 pickup, and zero general play turnovers in 60 minutes of goal defence. A known defensive tagger (a metric unable to be measured by statistics alone), Weston personally achieved more than 80 NNP in this game for only the fifth time since NNP records began in 2018.

Weston played 904 minutes across goal defence and wing defence, the latter mainly in Rounds 6-12 which saw at least one other contracted defender out with injury.

Her on-court leadership provided structure and support to the ever-changing lineup, as reflected in the team’s collective performance; at the end of the 2023 season, the Vixens were ranked seventh in the league for average number of intercepts per game. In 2024, they ranked second.

At the end of the season, Weston ranked second in the league for pickups with 29. She is still ranked equal second in the SSN history books for most pickups in a season with 43, achieved in the Vixens’ 2020 championship season.

Weston also still holds the Vixens’ franchise record for most defensive rebounds in an SSN season with 26 in 2017.

Kate Eddy

Kate Eddy once again proved how integral she is to the Vixens’ defence and versatility in 2024 with critical performances in key matches.

She played one of her best games in Round 4, winning 3 intercepts and 57.5 NNP (her fourth-highest NNP score in a single game to date) across the match.

Rounds 6-12 saw Eddy out with injury, but she soon returned at full strength and showed her ability to swing into the goal circle.

In just 15 minutes of court time in Round 14, the 182cm defender recorded two rebounds and two gains playing across wing and goal defence. She played another 41 minutes across wing and goal defence in the preliminary final, achieving both attacking and defensive stats including 1 gain and 2 pickups.

Eddy’s wing defence performance in the semi final was crucial to the Vixens’ 1-point win. She played the full 60 minutes and recorded 3 gains, 1 deflection resulting in a gain, 1 pick up, zero general play turnovers, and 51.5 NNP.

Eddy finished the season with just 5 general play turnovers and an average 28.1 NNP per game – up on her career average of 23.2.

All statistics courtesy of Champion Data