Round 10 Preview: Vixens v Fever

The Vixens will be lining up against a red-hot Fever outfit however, who are coming off three consecutive wins, one of which was a particularly impressive 24-goal drubbing of 2019 Minor Premiers, the Sunshine Coast Lightning.

The Vixens themselves are coming off a handy 20-goal win against the GIANTS in Round 9, with Co-Captain, Kate Moloney, being impressed with the complete performance from her team.

“I just think it was a really impressive, overall team performance,” Moloney confirmed. “The GIANTS came at us really hard at the start – we knew they were going to – but just our ability to stay in the game and push it out was really impressive.”

The Suncorp Super Shot has been a controversial topic since it was first introduced five weeks before the start of the condensed 2020 season, and the GIANTS are a team that have been using it to their full advantage. In fact, 18 of the GIANTS final 53 goals in Tuesday’s game could be attributed to the Suncorp Super Shot, compared to the Vixens’ eight.

“In particular, in that first quarter they shot a lot of Super Shots,” Moloney agreed. “We got out to a lead and I think that Super Shot really got them back into it, so for us it was just about staying in the moment, staying in the game…we knew if we kept putting the defensive pressure on that hopefully the scoreboard would keep ticking over, and it did for us in the end and we were able to get on top which was great.”

Looking ahead to the Fever, Moloney agreed that the Fever’s recent form looked ominous.

“Their game against Lightning they had an absolutely massive win!” Moloney reiterated. “For us, whenever you play against Fever, it’s all about defensive pressure. They’ve got such a target in that shooting circle with [Jhaniele] Fowler, so it’s about full court defence…we know it’s going to be a tough game, but we’re really looking forward to playing them again.”

The Vixens have enjoyed a ‘long’ four-day break since their Round 9 win over the GIANTS and will be raring to go against the Fever on Saturday.

“For us it’s been about recovery since our last game, so just making sure we prepare as best as we can…freshen everyone up,” Moloney continued. “We’ve had a look at the Fever games that they’ve played lately, and for us it’s just about going in there with a really defensive mindset, putting that pressure on them early and getting the scoreboard ticking over.”

The Vixens will host the Fever this Saturday 5 September at Brisbane’s Nissan Arena to open Round 10. The match will be broadcast live on Channel 9 from 1pm.

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