Season 2025 stats wrap: Defence

Unit performance

In contrast to 2024 champions the Adelaide Thunderbirds, who led the league for intercepts, deflections, and rebounds in their title-winning campaign, the Vixens relied on a relentless tagging, shutdown style of defence to claim their second Suncorp Super Netball title.

This defensive work was reflected in their opponents’ mistakes – officially classed as unforced turnovers – referring to possession changes because of an offensive player making an error or infringing, including bad passes, replayed balls, over a third calls, and offensive penalties.

Across 17 matches, rival teams coughed up 223 unforced errors against the Vixens – more than against any other side in the league. West Coast Fever came in 2nd for this stat, with 195 unforced errors made against them in 16 matches.

It was the difference in the grand final, where the Vixens made 12 unforced turnovers resulting in 9 goals, compared to Fever’s 14 unforced turnovers resulting in 7 goals. The result: a 1-point victory and Fever held to just 57 points – their lowest total since the return of Jhaniele Fowler-Nembhard in Round 3.

Over the season, no team capitalised better on defensive pressure than the Vixens. They scored a league-best 153 goals from unforced turnovers, and had the highest gain-to-goal rate at 71.8%.

The Vixens also restricted opponents to the fewest feeds on average, and forced the most held balls (18) – a further indication of their smothering style of defence.

Kate Eddy

With more time spent playing across goal and wing defence, and the 3rd most minutes (1003) played in the league, Kate Eddy had a season to remember. 

Round 1 saw arguably her career-best performance, when Eddy broke her match Nissan Net Points (NNP) record with 84, and equalled her most gains in a match with 5. Her previous personal best records were set in Round 1 2020, when Eddy scored her now second-highest NNP score of 70.5.

Eddy finished the season with the 4th-best NNP season average for a wing defence at 32.2 – up on her career average of 24.8.

Jo Weston

The Vixens’ 2025 campaign relied heavily on Jo Weston, who played the most minutes in the league (1016), and was named the team’s MVP for the first time in her 12 seasons at the club.

The experienced defender ranked 2nd in the league for pick ups (29), equal 6th for defensive rebounds (19), 4th for deflections with no gain (44), 7th for deflections (50), and equal 8th for gains (41).

Weston also lifted her efficiency, averaging 46.6 NNP per game – the 3rd-best return for any goal defence this season – and up on her career average of 39.4.

She arguably saved her best performance for the grand final, picking up 5 deflections, 4 pickups, 69.5 NNP, and being named player of the match by the Fox Netball broadcast team. 

Weston was selected in the 2025-26 Australian Diamonds squad during the season, marking her 11th consecutive international selection.

Rudi Ellis

With more time on court than ever in her SSN career (816 minutes – 195 more than her previous highest minutes, recorded last year), Rudi Ellis solidified her defensive combinations in the team, particularly with Jo Weston. 

The two predominant circle defenders worked together to achieve an almost equal number of gains (Ellis 40, Weston 41) and intercepts (both 15 – equal 8th in the league) across the season. 

Ellis came into her own in the finals series. Coming up against two of the strongest goal shooters in the world in Grace Nweke and Fowler-Nembhard, Ellis made 6 gains in the preliminary final (her 2nd most gains in an SSN match to date), and 3 gains in the grand final, including a critical deflection in the final five minutes to maintain the lead. 

Following the season’s conclusion, Ellis was named as a temporary replacement player in the 2025-26 Australian Diamonds squad.

Maggie Caris

After three years as a Melbourne Vixens training partner, Maggie Caris earned her first SSN contract for the 2025 season as a temporary replacement player for Emily Mannix (parental leave).

The 22-year-old impressed in her six appearances (99 minutes) on court, most notably in Round 3, when Caris came on at half time to secure 3 intercepts, 4 deflections, 1 pick up, and 52 NNP in just 30 minutes of play.

All statistics courtesy of Champion Data.