Dan Ryan has never been shy about his admiration for Jamaican Jhaniele Fowler-Nembhard and so it comes as no surprise that the West Coach Fever head coach believes the towering goal shooter is the best to ever grace that position in netball history.

Fowler-Nembhard celebrated her 35th birthday by putting on yet another shooting masterclass in the Fever’s Suncorp Super Netball (SSN) League minor semi-final victory over Sunshine Coast Lightning at the RAC Arena in Perth on Sunday.

The five-time league MVP scored 67 goals from 69 attempts—the two missed chances being late Super Shot attempts—as the Fever downed the Sunshine Coast Lightning 72-62 to book a preliminary final date with Melbourne Vixens. 

On the back of that performance, Fowler-Nembhard extended her lead atop the Nissan Net Points (1704.5) standings as well as the goals scored ladder, shooting her 880 goals with 96% accuracy.

For Ryan, the Perth-based franchise could not have asked for a better first-choice goal shooter.

“She’s the greatest goal shooter our game has ever seen,” Ryan declared. 

“Because she has such high standards every single weekend, everyone has such incredibly high standards for her.  We’re so grateful that she’s in our team, and we have a real priority to ensure we get the best out of Jhaniele, with who sits in front of her,” he added.

Beyond her scoring abilities, Ryan also praised Fowler-Nembhard’s leadership skills, which he pointed out often come to the fore when her compatriot and goal attack Shanice Beckford has an off-game. 

“She’s been an incredible leader. The way she’s leading that front line, she’s happy to take a 2v1 if she needs to, and she’s backing in Shanice when she needs to. We’re seeing mum mode from Jhaniele out there, and we absolutely love it,” Ryan noted.

Shanice Beckford

Fowler-Nembhard’s perfect first half performance kept the Fever in touch with the Lightning, 16-18 at the end of the first quarter, before the 2022 champions put the foot down in the second half to keep their premiership hopes alive. 

They outscored the Lightning 36-27 after the main break, had nine gains—eight of which they converted to goals—and five defensive rebounds to put an end to the Lightning’s season.

The performance was much to the delight of Ryan, who believes the manner in which his team upped their tempo in the second half augurs well going into their next encounter.

“We’ve been tracking really nicely over the last month and playing some great netball. We knew we were in a good spot heading into Sunday’s game, and we really wanted to make sure we found an extra gear,” Ryan reasoned.

“The first half was a real grind and a real challenge, and we were certainly under the pump. I am really proud of the girls for the way they stuck at their jobs, and when the moments popped up in that second half, we took them. To win by ten in a do-or-die semi-final is an amazing result.” he shared.

The Fever’s renewed form in winning their last four encounters, comes at the right time, following a mid-season wobble that saw them slip from the top of the standings into third place at the end of regular season play.

Those off colour mid-season games, Ryan said, have served as motivation for his side, which is now aiming to possibly carry their rich vein of form all the way to the grand final against reigning champions Adelaide Thunderbirds.

But first, West Coast Fever will have to get past the Vixens on their return to John Cain Arena this Saturday. 

“Our team has been on a really important journey across the season, and we always connect back to the mid part of the season where we went win-loss-win-loss for a while,” Ryan stated. 

“The learnings we were getting out of those moments were invaluable, and we’ve got great confidence now in these pressure games. We’re really grateful for another opportunity to play netball under finals pressure; we know we’re in great form and we’re going to be really hard to beat at our best,” he ended.

Novak Djokovic is confident he can recover from a wrist injury in time for his Australian Open title defence.

The world number one struggled with a problem with his right wrist and was not at his best in a straight-sets defeat to Alex de Minuar in the United Cup in Perth.

Djokovic, bidding for a record-extending 11th men’s Australian Open singles title, lost 6-4 6-4 to world number 12 De Minaur as Australia beat Serbia 2-0 in their quarter-final in the mixed team event.

“Congrats to De Minaur, he was very solid from the beginning, just played a great match and deserved to win,” Djokovic said in a post-match interview.

“I was not at my level, but it was just one of these days where you didn’t feel your best on the court and your opponent played very well, that’s all I can say.

“I have enough time to get myself in the right shape for the Australian Open and that’s what matters the most at this point.

“I think I’ll be OK, to be honest, but it did have quite an impact, particularly on the forehand and serve.

“But, again, I don’t want to be too much time talking about it and taking away credit for the victory from De Minaur, he was just very solid as he always is.

“Congrats to him and to the Australian team. It is what it is for us I guess and I move on with my thoughts in Melbourne.”

Djokovic will find out his first-round opponent at Melbourne Park when the singles draw for the first grand slam of the year takes place on Sunday.

The 36-year-old needed a medical time-out for his wrist problem in his previous United Cup match against the Czech Republic’s Jiri Lehecka, which he won in three sets on Tuesday.

Against De Minaur he twice needed treatment, first after holding serve to lead 4-3 in the opening set and again after he had been broken to trail 5-4.

“I knew I was probably not going to be at 100 per cent physically, emotionally, mentally game-wise in the opening week of the season,” Djokovic added.

“Neither did I expect that or want that to be honest. It’s all a part of the build-up for the Australian Open.”

Despite Djokovic’s fitness concerns, De Minaur produced an impressive performance to seal one of the biggest wins of his career in just over an hour-and-a-half.

Ajla Tomljanovic followed De Minaur’s win by beating Serbia’s Natalija Stevanovic 6-1 6-1 to clinch Australia’s semi-final place.