Adelaide Thunderbirds captain Hannah Petty has declared her favoured team won’t take a backward step in the Super Netball grand final against a Melbourne Vixens side primed for a physical battle.
The minor premiers and defending-champion Thunderbirds will start warm favourites at a sold out Adelaide Entertainment Centre on Saturday after reeling off seven straight wins, including a crushing 25-goal major semi-final victory over the Vixens.
However, they have only won one out of seven Super Netball deciders.
Adelaide set a league record for the least goals conceded across the home-and-away rounds for the second straight year.
Jamaican stars Shamera Sterling-Humphrey and Latanya Wilson spearhead their defence, which is ranked first for intercepts, pick ups and deflections.
Melbourne are loaded with Australian talent with Emily Mannix and Jo Weston at the back, Kate Moloney in the midcourt and reliable shooters Sophie Garbin and Kiera Austin.
Petty emphasised it would take a full court effort to secure another title rather than relying on big defensive plays.
"We can’t rely on one person or one end of the court or in the middle trying to get the job done, it’s got to be a full team effort," Petty said.
"We know that the Vixens are going to come out firing and we’ve not got to take a backward step that's for sure."
Vixens captain Moloney foreshadowed a physical contest.
"If we’re going to win we know it’s going to be physical and tough tomorrow so we’ve got to bring that and more and we think we can," she said.
"We played against them a couple of weeks ago and we’ll look to change a couple of things up and hopefully that goes a long way in helping us get the win."
Former Diamonds shooter Cath Cox felt the Vixens needed to reproduce the shorter, sharper, speedier passing they showed in their preliminary final win against West Coast Fever.
"You can’t go playing an aerial game like you generally would because you’ve got the best defenders in the air in the game with the Adelaide Thunderbirds," Cox told AAP.
"I think they need to do what they did against the West Coast Fever, they played with freedom it felt like high risk high reward kind of netball."
Ex-Diamonds defender, and fellow Fox Sports commentator, Bianca Chatfield identified gains to goals and Super Shots in the Power 5 period of each quarter as a couple of crucial areas the Vixens needed to exploit in order to spring the upset.
"If Vixens can be above 75, 80 per cent for their gain to goal percentage that's going to be of huge advantage to them and the other thing I think where they can really take it to the Thunderbirds on the scoreboard is really using that Power 5, because the Thunderbirds don’t use that," Chatfield said.
"The Thunderbirds have shot 35 Super Shots all season and the Vixens are shooting on 99, so they’ve got the accuracy there."
