It will be a battle of the Diamonds and Roses in the shooting circle when international teammates go head-to-head at RAC Arena in Perth on Saturday night.
GIANTS Coach Julie Fitzgerald revealed on this week’s Coach’s Insight that her side is firmly focused on retaining the top-four spot they got after their third win of the season in round six.
“Now that we’ve finally won our way into the top-four, we’re desperate to stay there so this is a vital game for us,” Fitzgerald said.
In a small quirk, Samsung Australian Diamonds captain Caitlin Bassett will go up against Fever captain and Australian goal-keeper Courtney Bruce while English teammates Jo Harten and Stacey Francis will also battle it out at goal attack and goal defence respectively.
“It’s kind of good in that they do know each other so well but they’re playing in very different combinations, particularly down our attack end,” Fitzgerald said.
“Courtney won’t have a great deal of experience playing in that attack end and Stacey too, everything’s a little bit different, we’ve got different players everywhere.”
While it will be an interesting match-up between Bassett – the competition’s number one offensive rebounder – and Bruce, who is traditionally strong in this area, Fitzgerald isn’t planning on letting either of them feature in this category on Saturday night.
“We have great respect for Courtney’s rebounding ability so we’re hoping to have very few offensive rebounds,” the coach joked.
The GIANTS’ new shooting pairing has started to settle seven weeks into the season with Bassett and Harten forming a strong partnership in last week’s win over the Thunderbirds.
After a broken arm kept Bassett out of most of the pre-season, the pair have started to hit their groove with Harten shooting her 1000th Suncorp Super Netball goal last round and finishing with 33/37 at 89 per cent, her best statistics of the season so far. Bassett also performed strongly, scoring 32/35 at 91 per cent.
“I think our whole attack is improving every week,” Fitzgerald said.
“We did know it was going to take time and we’re certainly starting to see the signs of the hard work that they’ve put in there, the combinations are getting better every week.”
Fitzgerald also spoke about the dominance of Fever shooter and Jamaican international Jhaniele Fowler, who is leading the competition in goals and goal attempts with 307/322 at a shooting accuracy of 95 per cent.
“It’s certainly a game where your goal keeper’s not going to come out and win the game for you,” Fitzgerald said.
“We’ve got to give her (Sam Poolman) every bit of support as we can so it’s very important we have seven people out there defending constantly.”
The GIANTS take on the Fever at RAC Arena in Perth on Saturday night at 6pm WST/8pm EST. Watch live on Telstra TV or the Netball Live App or follow @GIANTS_Netball on Twitter for live updates.
