Al-anwar Newspaper English news in Australia
The likely return of new mum Karla Pretorius could see Super Netball wooden spooners Sunshine Coast Lightning bounce back to the finals in record time after missing the playoffs for the first time.
In the closest season in the six-year history of the competition, the race to the finals will come down to the final round of the season.
And not until the final fixture of the year – the Victorian derby on Monday — will the make-up of the top four become clear.
Just one team is out of finals contention but even the Lightning have set new records despite finishing at the back of the pack.
In the first of a series of deep dives into Super Netball season 2022, we take a look at the Lightning’s season.
Unfortunately for the Lightning, it’s easier to chronicle what went wrong this season than what went right. Player absences and illness made life difficult for Super Netball’s most successful club to put their best performances on court all year long, although they will finish with the best last-placed record of any club in the history of Super Netball.
The most successful cellar dweller before this year has been the Melbourne Vixens, who last year won two games, double the number that any last-place finisher had won before them.
The Lightning head into this weekend’s final round having doubled that again and could yet finish with five wins, so their season has by no means been a disaster.
But for a club that won the league’s first two titles, made another grand final and has never finished out of the playoffs, it’s been a difficult season.
The loss of captain Karla Pretorius — who missed the season on maternity leave — robbed the Lightning of their most experienced defender and it showed early in the season, with the team conceding a Super Netball record score of 82 on three separate occasions in the first half of the season.
Four other senior members of the team — including Diamonds squad members Steph Wood and Cara Koenen — also missed games at various times under Covid protocols, further eroding the team.
Once they were able to field a settled combination, the Lightning hit their stride and notched some substantial wins.
Among their victories is an upset of minor premiers the Melbourne Vixens, who have had just one other loss heading into the final week of the regular season.
They also put a near-record score on the Queensland Firebirds in the second leg of the Queensland derby after losing the first game by 28 points.
In Wood, Koenen and rookie Reilley Batcheldor, the Lightning have one of the most potent shooting combinations in the league.
Their introduction of Batcheldor, midcourter Annie Miller and the emergence of the previously injury-hampered Maddie Hinchliffe, there were strong signs of regeneration at the Lightning and an exciting new dawn.
Not out of finals calculations until the second-last game of the regular season, the Lightning showed they remain a competitive outfit, who suffered from a poor start, rather than a basket case in need of a total overhaul.
