Key defensive plays from Shamera Sterling and Latanya Wilson overcame another high-percentage shooting performance from Jhaniele Fowler as the Adelaide Thunderbirds pulled off another thrilling one-goal win 54-53 over the West Coast Fever at the Netball SA Stadium on Saturday.

Fowler, the Suncorp Super Netball League’s leading scorer, converted 42 of 43 attempts but it was not enough to prevent the reigning champions from falling to their fourth defeat of the season.

Wilson earned 74.5 Nissan Net Points and Sterling 63 for defensive play that held off the defending champions who led 20-12 after the first quarter. However, the league leaders managed to close the gap by the half-time interval after outscoring Fever 14-11 in the second.

The low-scoring encounter saw the Thunderbirds win the third and fourth quarters, 13-10 and 15-12, respectively to snatch another close win. Eleanor Cardwell converted 26 of her 30 shots and Lucy Austin scored six from six in the hard-fought victory.

Adelaide Thunderbirds now have eight wins and just two losses from their 11 games this season while Fever dropped to seven wins and four losses and are only third on goal difference over Melbourne Vixens who also have a record of seven wins and four losses.

The Vixens suffered their fourth loss of the season going down 70-62 to New South Wales Swifts, who got 29 goals from Romelda Aiken-George from 34 attempts and a perfect 16 from 16 from Helen Housby.

Mwai Kumwenda scored 33 of her 35 attempts for the Vixens.

Meanwhile, Shimona Nelson scored 53 goals from 56 attempts for the Collingwood Magpies, whose miserable season will be their last in the Suncorp Super Netball League, as they suffered yet another defeat.

The Magpies were outscored 66-62 by the Sunshine Coast Lightning in what was their ninth loss of the season.

Cara Koenen scored 34 from 35 and Steph Wood 20/24 for the Lightning who were picking up their fourth win of the season and are current fifth in the league standings.

Defending Suncorp Super Netball champions West Coast Fever lost their third match of the season going down 65-64 to New South Wales Swifts and slipped to third in the league standings after what was their third loss in their last four games.

The win means the Swifts, led by Romelda Aiken-George, who scored 28 of 34, leapfrogged the Fever into second place in the standings going into round 10 of the competition.

Jhaniele Fowler, the league’s leading scorer, scored a game-high 53 goals from 55 shots, and Natalie Butler three of four for the Fever, who were without their vice-captain Jess Anstiss and goal attack Sasha Glasgow, who were ruled out due to Covid-19 Health and Safety Protocols.

The Swifts led 32-20 at half-time and despite a late rally from the Fever, they came up a goal short in the end.

Meanwhile, the Adelaide Thunderbirds maintained their position at the top of the standings after crushing the Queensland Firebirds 63-46.

Eleanor Cardwell led the scoring for the Thunderbirds with 27 from 32 and Lucy Austin, who supported with 19 from 21, while Shamera Sterling had six interceptions in what was a close match heading into the final quarter.

However, the Thunderbirds dominated the final stanza 24-9 to claim victory.

Shimona Nelson’s perfect night, scoring 46 goals from as many attempts, was unable to prevent the Collingwood Magpies from going down 69-56 to GIANTS.

Following their victory over GIANTS, Shamera Sterling’s Adelaide Thunderbirds are the new leaders of the Suncorp Super Netball League after defending champions West Coast Fever suffered only their second loss of the season on Saturday.

Led by Eleanor Cardwell near perfect 26 goals from 27 attempts and Lucy Austin’s 13 from 15, Thunderbirds led 18-13 at the end of the first quarter. However, Jo Harten who scored 23 goals from 25 shots and Sophie Dwyer (17/20) closed the gap to three by half-time as GIANTS outscored Thunderbirds 15-13 in the second stanza.

GIANTS dominated the third quarter 13-9 and take a slim lead into the final quarter of the game but Thunderbirds rallied to win the quarter 14-9 and take the game 54-50 for their sixth win of the season.

Fever, meanwhile, went down 74-73 in a thriller to Melbourne Vixens despite a game-high 48 goals of 49 attempts from the league top scorer Jhaniele Fowler, who now has 446 goals on the season.

However, after both teams traded goals for the entire match, it was Kiera Austin’s super shot at the buzzer than kept the Vixens unbeaten at home this season and handed the defending champions their second loss of the season.

Mwai Kumwenda led the Vixens with 45 goals from 50 attempts while Austin scored 23 from 29 for her side that outscored Fever 18-16 in the first quarter before sharing honours 19-19 in the second to take a two goal lead into the break.

Fever rallied to take the third quarter 19-16 but thanks to Austin’s super shot, Vixens edged the final quarter 21-19 to secure their fifth win of the season.

In the battle between the teams at the foot of the table, Donnell Wallam scored a game high 64 goals from 65 attempts to lead the Queensland Firebirds to their second win of the season, a 73-67 win over Collingwood Magpies.

Shimona Nelson scored 56 goals from 58 attempts for the Magpies who were losing their sixth game of the season.

Defending Suncorp Super League champions West Coast Fever suffered their first loss of the season, going down 64-63 to the Adelaide Thunderbirds at the RAC Arena on Saturday.

Led by the league’s leading scorer Jhaniele Fowler, who scored 51 goals from 53 attempts, the Fever outscored the Thunderbirds 20-17 and 15-14 over the first two quarters, respectively, to take a 35-31 lead into the half-time break.

Fowler has now scored 331 goals this season.

However, despite winning the third quarter 15-14, the Fever were unable to hold off the Thunderbirds, who stormed back to outscore the champions 19-13 in the final stanza to snatch victory. Eleanor Cardwell led the Thunderbirds scoring with 33 goals from 34 attempts but key to their victory was that she hit eight of her 14 super shots.

Wing Defence Latanya Wilson and Goal Keeper Shamera Sterling played key roles on the defensive side with nine intercepts between them. The much-anticipated battle between Jamaican teammates Fowler and Shamera Sterling proved decisive as the Goal Keeper, who had six deflections, made it difficult for Fever to connect into the circle and suffered their first loss of the season on home court.

After five rounds of matches in the 2023 Suncorp Super Netball League, Jamaican players are dominating the elite netball league on both sides of the ball.

Many-time West Coast Fever MVP and 2022 champion Jhaniele Fowler leads all scorers with the most goals scored (280) and the most attempts (284). The towering Jamaican shooter has missed only four times since the start of the season for the unbeaten West Coast Fever.

Shimona Nelson who plays for the Collingwood Magpies is third in the standings with 217 goals and is also third in the number of attempts at 226.

Shamera Sterling of the Adelaide Thunderbirds has been just as impressive on the other side of the ball. The defender leads in the number of defensive rebounds (16) and deflections (40). She also leads in the number of Nissan Net Points (539).

Fowler lies fourth with 491.

Nissan Net Points are Suncorp Super Netball's first overarching player metric. They are a stats-based scoring system, run by Champion Data, that measures every player action on the court. Every time someone scores a goal, blocks a pass, gets a defensive rebound (and so on), they get points.

The bigger the impact, the bigger the points. If players make mistakes or cause turnovers, they lose points. At the end of the game, each player receives an individual Nissan Net Points score, which represents their contribution to the match.

Also on the defensive side, Jodi-Ann Ward of the Collingwood Magpies leads the league with 19 intercepts followed by Kadie-Ann Dehaney of Sunshine Coast Lightning with 15. Sterling is fourth with 12.

Romelda Aiken-George of New South Wales Swifts leads the league with 22 offensive rebounds while Nelson has 17 for third in the standings.

Sunshine Girls Captain Jhaniele Fowler was named the Suncorp Super Netball Player of the Year for the fifth year in a row at the Australian Netball Awards Ceremony on Thursday.

The 33-year-old goal shooter led all players 1668.5 total points, 929 goals and 55 offensive rebounds on her way to helping the West Coast Fever to second place in the league table with 32 points from their twelve games, eight behind champions the Melbourne Vixens.

Fowler was also named to the Suncorp Super Netball Team of the Year. The team also included Fowler's Sunshine Girls teammates Shamera Sterling at Goal Keeper and Latanya Wilson at Goal Defence. Sterling and Wilson, both members of the Adelaide Thunderbirds, finished first and third in interceptions with 52 and 31, respectively. Sterling was also fourth in total points with 1177.5.

Jhaniele Fowler’s West Coast Fever defeated the Sunshine Coast Lightning 74-65 at the USC Stadium in Queensland in round nine of the Suncorp Super League on Sunday thanks to a perfect 66 goals from 66 attempts from the Jamaican goal shooter.

Fowler’s Fever now has seven wins from nine games to lead the eight-team table with 28 points

Jamaican goal shooter Shimona Nelson was on fire to help the Collingwood Magpies secure a 71-67 win over the Queensland Firebirds at the MyState Bank Arena in Tasmania.

Nelson scored 65 goals from 66 attempts to help the Magpies move to sixth in the table with 16 points from nine matches.

Goal defence Lattanya Wilson and goalkeeper Shamera Sterling each snatched three rebounds but they weren’t enough to prevent their Adelaide Thunderbirds from going down 40-54 to the New South Wales Swifts at the Ken Rosewall Arena.

The Thunderbirds are now seventh in the table with 12 points from nine games.

West Coast Fever’s Jhaniele Fowler has been named Super Netball Player of the Year for the fourth year running at the Australian Netball Awards on Wednesday night. The towering Jamaican shooter finished the 2021 season as the league’s top goalscorer with 891 goals.

Fowler, 32, joined the West Coast Fever in 2018 and dominated winning the leading goal scorer award with 783 goals, which was then a record. She was also awarded the competition's player of the year title.

She won the leading goalscorer award for a second consecutive season in 2019 and capped off the year by becoming the first player in the league's history to win multiple Player of the Year awards.

Fowler would win her third consecutive Suncorp Super Netball Player of the Year Award after an outstanding 2020 season during a special online version of the Australian Netball Awards.

The 1.96m tall shooter, who had three games in which she shot 100 per cent from the field, was also named to the 2021 Suncorp Super Netball Team of the Year.

The team also included Trinidad and Tobago’s Samantha Wallace who made the team as Attack Reserve while Jamaica’s Shamera Sterling was a Defence Reserve.

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.

Following the federation’s official rebrand to World Netball, the international governing body has announced appointments of two of Jamaica’s best-loved netball stars – Marva Bernard OD, and Shamera Sterling - as official ambassadors.

Samantha Wallace scored 43 goals to outscore Shimona Nelson in the New South Wales Swifts’ 62-53 victory over the Collingwood Magpies at the Ken Rosewall Arena in Suncorp Super League netball action today.