Despite the fact that West Coast Fever suffered a tough round nine loss to Adelaide Thunderbirds, Jamaica’s Jhaniele Fowler-Nembhard remains atop the Nissan Net Points tally, with her compatriots Romelda Aiken-George, Shamera Sterling-Humphrey and Latanya Wilson also in pole across other categories.

With 959.5 Net Points to her credit, Fowler-Nembhard is well over 100 points ahead of Sunshine Coast Lightning’s Liz Watson (809.5 points), with Sterling-Humphrey (780 points) in third.

Fowler-Nembhard also has a strangle hold on the goals and attempts leaderboards, with 494 goals and 514 attempts. She has Australian goal shooters Donnell Wallam (378 goals and 440 attempts), Sophie Garbin (363 goals and 413 attempts), and Cara Koenen (340 goals and 376 attempts) keeping close company. Aiken-George is fifth on both standings with 306 goals and 353 attempts.

However, Aiken-George continues to lead the offensive rebounds ladder with 43, ahead of Garbin (37), Koenen (33), Wallam (30), and Fowler-Nembhard (25).

A massive week from Wilson ensured the Sunshine Girl retains pole position on the intercepts ladder, as her tally of 33 now pushed her five ahead of teammate Sterling-Humphrey (28).

Still, Sterling-Humphrey has a firm grip on the deflections leaderboard (62) and defensive rebounds (22), both marginally ahead of Ash Ervin, who has 53 deflections and 18 defensive rebounds. Wilson (49) is third on the deflections ladder.

Meanwhile, despite another Swifts loss, Helen Housby’s willingness to shoot from range has not stopped. She is still leading the Suncorp Super Shots (53) and attempts (81) categories, while Liz Watson has continued her midcourt dominance, with 232 goal assists to her name to go with her 236 centre pass receives.

Jamaican defender Latanya Wilson, produced a Player of the Match performance in her 50th national league game to assist Adelaide Thunderbirds to a comfortable 58-33 win over New South Wales Swifts in a lopsided affair at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre on Saturday.

The contest, which was a repeat of last year’s grand final, was expected to be just a fierce, but Wilson and her Thunderbirds teammates were in a no-nonsense mood, as they won all but one quarter of the encounter to bounce back from last week's nail-biting one-goal loss to West Coast Fever.

Wilson, 23, notched up 118.5 Nissan Net Points thanks to four intercepts, seven deflections and nine pick-ups in a performance that matches her milestone.

“It feels so amazing. What a milestone. It is such a great feeling and I am so happy we got the win. We are evolving and we are hunting something new, whatever that looks like, I am so happy that I am a part of this great team,” a beaming Wilson said in a post-game interview.

While the wing defence did her part along with compatriot and goalkeeper Shamera Sterling-Humphrey, who had five deflections and three intercepts, another Jamaican Romelda Aiken-George led the Thunderbirds attack with 30 goals from 32 attempts.

Lucy Austin (12 goals from 12 attempts), Georgie Horjus (nine goals from 10 attempts), and Lauren Frew (seven goals from nine attempts), contributed the others.

Wilson was on song in the Thunderbirds defence.

Meanwhile, the Swifts, who were off beat all-around, got most goals from Sophie Fawns (16 goals from 19 attempts). Helen Housby (10 goals from 14 attempts), Trinidad and Tobago’s Samantha Wallace-Joseph (five goals from seven attempts) and Grace Whyte (two goals from four attempts), got the others.

Aside from the opening quarter in which they came out strong and secured a 13-12 lead over the Thunderbirds, the Swifts struggled to maintain momentum throughout.

In fact, they made a number of errors in the second quarter that shifted things in favour of the Thunderbirds, who capitalised and won the quarter 11-7 to overtake the lead at 23-20 at the half-time interval.

Wallace-Joseph finally entered the court for the Swifts to start the third quarter which meant Housby moved back into her preferred position of goal attack, but the move proved futile.

While both teams made some uncharacteristic errors, the Thunderbirds recovered best and later asserted their authority on the contest in what turned out to be a match-winning third quarter.

Sterling-Humphrey made her presence felt and picked up a flying intercept, after which, Wilson took the mantle to shut out the Swifts, as they ended the quarter 13 goals up at 41-28.

Faced with the huge deficit, it was crucial for the Swifts to come out firing in the fourth quarter - and they did for the most part, but another intercept from Sterling-Humphrey prevented them from scoring.

From there, the Swifts racked up penalties and turnovers, while missing six of their 11 attempts, as Thunderbirds effortlessly took the quarter 17-5 to complete the 25-goal rout.

Australia’s cricketers have thrown their weight behind the country’s netballers, creating a “fighting fund” to help them through a pay dispute with their governing body.

Australia’s Diamonds captured the Netball World Cup in August amid a background of disharmony and Super Netball players have been out of contract since September 30.

Now the Australian Cricketers’ Association (ACA), which represents the country’s male and female cricketers, has vowed to support the netballers in their quest for a revenue-sharing model.

The support includes the creation of the fund to help netballers during the spell of unemployment and the ACA said it is in talks with the Australian Athletes’ Alliance and other player associations to join the initiative.

ACA chief executive Todd Greenberg pledged to stand with the netballers until their campaign is successful and called on Netball Australia to develop a long-term growth model with a partnership model akin to the five-year deal the cricketers have negotiated with Cricket Australia.

Describing the revenue-sharing model as a “win-win”, he said: “The netballers are leaning on friends and family for financial support.

“What is disappointing is that the netballers’ requests are modest and affordable for the sport.

“The ACA believes they should be given the same partnership opportunities as our players – the same opportunities that have seen cricket thrive.”

Australia are in their midst of the four-match Constellation Cup series against local rivals New Zealand, winning the first two matches on home soil despite continuing turmoil between the Australian Netball Players Association (ANPA) and Netball Australia.

ANPA chief executive Kathryn Harby-Williams said: “Australian netballers are brave and resilient people. When your minimum wage is 40,000 dollars (£20,940) you have to show a lot of courage to take a stand.

“That’s why this expression of support is so welcome. It lets the netballers know they are not alone.”

Netball Australia said its latest offer, rejected by the ANPA, would increase investment by 1.275 million dollars (£670,000).

The ANPA said the players wanted a revenue-sharing agreement and said “we’d like to share in the good times we help build and we will share in the risk when times are tough”.

England forwards Helen Housby and Eleanor Cardwell, part of the team beaten in the World Cup final, are among those unable to sign new contracts for the next Super Netball season.

Jhaniele Fowler scored 57 goals as Jamaica’s Sunshine Girls defeated England’s Roses 63-53 for a consolation victory in the England Roses Vitality Series that concluded on Sunday.

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