Fever stay unbeaten in Super Netball

West Coast have cruised to a 63-54 win over the NSW Swifts in Perth to remain the only undefeated team after four Super Netball rounds.

Jhaniele Fowler of the West Coast Fever.

Jamaican Jhaniele Fowler scored 53 goals in West Coast's Super Netball win over the NSW Swifts. (AAP)

West Coast remain the only undefeated team after four rounds of the Super Netball season following the Fever's comfortable 63-54 win over the NSW Swifts in Perth on Sunday.

It was a productive outing for the Fever, who also collected three bonus points to sit well clear at the top of the table on 28 points, with the Melbourne Vixens (21) and Giants (20) next best.

After winning just two games in 2017, West Coast have taken all before them this year in beating the Adelaide Thunderbirds, Collingwood Magpies, Sunshine Coast Lightning and Swifts while claiming 12 of a possible 16 bonus points.

Jamaican shooter Jhaniele Fowler bagged 53 goals from 59 attempts for the Fever and her combination with Nat Medhurst dazzling. She consistently set her teammate up and hit all eight of her own shots.

Fever recorded 14 intercepts for the game led by six by Diamonds goalkeeper Courtney Bruce as her partnership with Stacey Francis made life challenging for Sam Wallace (24 of 28), Helen Housby (24 of 31) and Sophie Garbin (6 of 7).

The unheralded midcourt - led by Verity Charles, Ingrid Colyer and Jess Anstiss - is combining well.

Coach Stacey Marinkovic couldn't be happier with the Fever's unbeaten start to the season.

"Particularly through the midcourt we are getting some really good ball and that's just by tight marking and going through on the contest," Marinkovic said.

"Our penalty count was really low too, particularly for the first half, so it means we are playing a really attacking brand of defence."

Swifts coach Briony Akle was disappointed in her team's effort particularly with the way they coughed up careless turnovers.

She was at least happy they won the last quarter to claim a bonus point and she feels plenty of what went wrong is easily correctable.

"It just comes back to basic errors... you are going to have bad days and for me I'm happy that we pulled it into that score," Akle said.

"It's more frustrating and for us we just have to finish it when we've got the ball. We lost the first three centre passes of the game so I've got to look at that."

Both the first two quarters followed similar trajectories, going goal for goal until the last couple of minutes. In the first, Fever scored the last five goals and eight of the last nine to lead 16-11.

Then in the second quarter, despite Garbin offering Housby good support in attack, West Coast hit six of the last seven goals to win the quarter 19-14 and lead 35-25 at halftime.

Fever again claimed the third quarter bonus point outscoring the Swifts 14-12 on the back of the last three goals.

The Swifts finished strongly with 12 of the last 19 goals to win the last quarter and take home a bonus point.


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Source: AAP


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