NS Scoreboard: SSN Round 12 2025

NS Scoreboard: SSN Round 12 2025

Cover Image: Kylie de Souza | Captured by Ky

Writers: Jenny Sinclair, Ian Harkin, Katrina Nissen, Georgia Doyle

Photographers: Aliesha Vicars, Kylie de Souza

*note Netball Scoop photographers were only available for the two Sunday matches this Round.

RESULTS

West Coast Fever 69 def Sunshine Coast Lightning 54

Melbourne Mavericks 68 def NSW Swifts 64

Adelaide Thunderbirds 56 def Melbourne Vixens 53

GIANTS Netball 68 def Queensland Firebirds 63 

MILESTONES

Jo Harten (GIANTS) played her 200th national league match. 

Tania Obst (Thunderbirds) made her 100th appearance as a head National League coach. 

Justin Barnes umpired his 50th National League match at the Firebirds v GIANTS match in Brisbane.

West Coast Fever became the first Super Netball team to record 10 consecutive wins in one season. 

INJURIES & OMISSIONS

The Queensland Firebirds confirmed Tippah Dwan will miss the remainder of the season as she continues to rehab her knee injury. She will continue to be replaced by Abigail Latu-Meafou. 

The Firebirds also announced that Hulita Veve will miss the last three rounds after tearing her ACL during training this week. She will undergo surgery soon, and was replaced by Danielle Taylor this week. Post match, coach Kiri Wills confirmed they will make a decision each week for the next two rounds of who will come into the game day 10.  

Firebirds injured athletes Tippah Dwan and Hulita Veve enjoyed the match from the secondary bench. Image: Kylie de Souza | Captured by Ky

Hannah Mundy will also likely miss the rest of the 2025 season as she continues rehabbing a stress related foot injury. 

Cara Koenen (Lightning) was omitted as she manages an ongoing foot injury. She was replaced by Jane Cook.

Latanya Wilson (Thunderbirds) hobbled off court late in the game with what appeared to be an ankle injury but was later revealed to be cramp. 

During Round 11 post match interviews, Tracey Neville confirmed that El Cardwell and Lauren Parkinson will likely not take the court for the remainder of the season as they are both working towards getting back on court. Neville said that with the intensity and physicality of the competition Mavericks medical and coaching staff wanted to be sure both athletes were fully ready to get out there rather than merely rushing their returns for the sake of a few games. 

Paige Hadley was spotted at the airport in a moonboot, but when asked during the match, coach Briony Akle said there was nothing going on. 

Verity Simmons made her way back into the Swifts squad, after Allie Smith was omitted. 

LET’S TALK ABOUT:

News of the Week

After two upset victories over the weekend, the Super Netball ladder has undergone some upheaval. Fever have moved into the minor premiership position, and with two home games coming, they will be hard to dislodge. That said, the Swifts are facing lesser ranked teams so if Fever drop a match they could storm back to the top. Lightning’s loss and the Thunderbirds win over the Vixens has seen the Lightning drop down to fifth, and the Thunderbirds move up into the top four in their attempt at a three-peat. Lightning face a nightmare finish with two away games against the Swifts and Thunderbirds, so will need a miracle to return to the top four, while Thunderbirds have two home games against the Lightning and Mavericks so look more likely to stay there. The last match of the season will be tough on the Vixens, as they’ll be making the long road trip to Perth to take on Fever, which could potentially see them drop to fourth. So, hosting rights for both the major and minor semi-finals remain up for grabs, with the ladder still looking remarkably fluid for this time of the season. With Thunderbirds and Lightning playing each other in the last round, one of them must go to 28 points and that means the finals are out of reach for both Mavericks and Giants.

In a heartbreaking social media post, Mavericks star Sasha Glasgow revealed the intense trolling she’s received since making her comeback from a serious leg injury. Sliding into her DMs, some awful messages have been sent to her about her on court performance, and also her appearance and life. Glasgow knew she would take time to work back into the game after an extended period on the sidelines. However, and particularly as someone who’s previously struggled with her body image, the personal comments were cruel and unnecessary. Such trolling has no place in sport, and our support and admiration goes to Sasha on calling out these behaviours.  

A huge congratulations to our Netball Scoop and freelance photographer May Bailey, whose image of Mary Cholhok and Sarah Klau has been selected as a finalist in the Women in Sport Photo Action Awards. Bailey is a finalist in the Female Photographer and the Professional category. The Female Athlete Project People’s Choice award can be voted on by the public, with entries closing on July 6th. Please vote now to show your support for both netball and Bailey’s brilliant image. 

In some special news Geva Mentor announced her pregnancy this week. Mentor retired from all levels of netball at the end of the 2025 NSL season, and is thrilled to be starting this new chapter in life with her husband. 

The Sunshine Coast Lightning celebrated their Sustainability Match thanks to Sunshine Coast Council. Key sustainability initiatives were promoted, including a free tree giveaway to fans.

The Melbourne Mavericks were proudly spotlighting Pride in their match against the Swifts. They wore their pride inspired dress and hosted inclusive match-day activations to show visible support for the LGBTQIA+ community. It was also Member’s day, and there was a real party atmosphere, especially when Mavericks were able to win.

Melbourne Vixens’ Sunday home match was a celebration of Everyone Belongs – recognising netball’s leadership in creating a welcoming, inclusive sport for all, from grassroots through to the elite level.

Game day featured a range of activations including an on-court recognition of the Vic All Abilities team, a junior exhibition match showcasing participants from multicultural communities, and interactive experiences led by inclusion partners such as Proud 2 Play, Special Olympics, and the Inclusion Project.

Vixens warm up tee for Round 12 promoted Everyone Belongs. Image: Aliesha Vicars

Last week World Netball announced a potential restructuring of pinnacle events which unfortunately included the subsequent shelving of the Fast5 World Series. But fans of the shortened format may not have to wait long for another event. Australian Diamond Gretel Bueta and former Silver Fern, Maria Folau have been teasing the Fire5 Netball Tournament on Instagram for a little over a week. Little is known about the tournament yet, however their bio confirms it will take place on November 22nd and 23rd on the Gold Coast. 

As we are drawing closer to the end of the season, fans are starting to speculate about signings for 2026. We have seen in recent weeks a shift in competition for contracted spots with athletes stepping up when given court time (whether in lieu of injured athletes or the 11th player rotations). Some athletes have signed with new management companies giving just a hint of what may be to come as they gear up for what will surely be an interesting signing period, starting on 3 August. As always, Netball Scoop will keep an updated list of player signings once the window opens. Stay tuned to our socials for when that drops. 

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This week’s guest was Temepara Bailey

STATS OF THE WEEK

Firstly, some notes on the Round 12 matches. 

Fever won their 10th straight match. That is the longest winning streak in a single season of SSN. In this match, Lightning shooters missed 15 shots and were only able to rebound 4, so they ended up with 11 missed goal turnovers. Fever had just two.

Mavericks had a gain to goal rate of 100% in their victory over Swifts. In all, they had 12 goals from gains for the match. Molly Jovic had 32 assists which is her best ever return and it took her to exactly 1000 assists in SSN.

In their loss to the Thunderbirds, Vixens scored just seven goals in the last quarter. That equals their lowest fourth quarter score in SSN. For Thunderbirds, Georgie Horjus brought up 2000 feeds in SSN.

In the game against Firebirds, Jo Harten celebrated her 200th match, and early in the second quarter, she brought up 6,000 points. She now has 5,722 goals from 6,764 attempts at 84.6%. When you factor in her 296 super shots, it means she has scored 6,018 points.

Jo Harten reached two impressive milestones in Round 12. Image: Kylie de Souza | Captured by Ky

This week, we’re going to focus on the attacking midcourt. In the wing attack position, there has been some discussion about the form of Australian captain Liz Watson this season with Lightning, particularly in comparison to Fever’s Alice Teague-Neeld. In Round 12, they opposed each other and Teague-Neeld was adjudged Player of the Match. It must be pointed out that she had the luxury of feeding Jhaniele Fowler-Nembhard, while Watson had to work with a Lightning attack missing its number one goal shooter in Cara Koenen.

Watson is a renowned ball magnet, consistently topping the stats for wing attacks in the league. This season, she is still the number one player in the league for centre pass receives, feeds, and feeds with an attempt. But Teague-Neeld has overtaken her to be in top spot in the assists category. Here are some of the numbers for both players so far in 2025.

Watson v Teague-Neeld (2025)
Centre pass receives: Watson 258, Teague-Neeld 245
Feeds: Watson 505, Teague-Neeld 405
Feeds with an attempt: Watson 318, Teague-Neeld 293
Assists: Teague-Neeld 255, Watson 245
Gains: Teague-Neeld 11, Watson 9
Pickups: Watson 23, Teague-Neeld 15

Those are positive stats, but here are some of the negative ones. 

General play turnovers: Watson 54, Teague-Neeld 26
Intercept pass thrown: Watson 17, Teague-Neeld 6
Penalties: Watson 74, Teague-Neeld 31

That isn’t great reading for Watson. Obviously, she is not going to be replaced in the Australian team any time soon. But her form is a concern. 

So what about some of the other midcourters? Jamie-Lee Price is having another strong season with the Giants, although her attacking numbers are down on 2024. It’s a similar situation with Kate Moloney at Vixens and Georgie Horjus from the Thunderbirds. Meanwhile, Molly Jovic at Mavericks and Macy Gardner at Firebirds have both played well for their teams. However, the stand out performer in terms of mistake-free netball is Paige Hadley who is having a tremendous season at the Swifts. After 12 rounds, she is averaging just 1.75 turnovers per game. That is an incredible number. By comparison, Teague-Neeld is averaging 2.17 turnovers a game, and next best is Kate Moloney on 2.27.

Now, let’s take a look at Net Points as that combines numerous stats, both positive and negative. In terms of midcourters, Hadley has gone from fifth in 2024 to first in 2025. Liz Watson on the other hand, has gone the other way. She is averaging almost 22 points a game less than last season.

Net Points – Midcourt (2024)
1 Liz Watson – 98.03
2 Jamie-Lee Price – 91.46
3 Alice Teague-Neeld – 82.88
4 Kate Moloney – 82.62
5 Paige Hadley – 78.68

Net Points – Midcourt (2025)
1 Paige Hadley – 89.29
2 Alice Teague-Neeld – 83.29
3 Jamie-Lee Price – 81.08
4 Macy Gardner – 77.08
5 Liz Watson – 76.25

Paige Hadley (pictured in Round 9) has the safest hands of any midcourter in 2025. Image: Danny Dalton | Tah Dah Sports

MATCH WRAPS:

Fever v Lightning

Fever produced one of the most dominant terms of the season in their 15 point takedown of Lightning. In the first quarter, Fever finished with 100% conversion of gains and turnovers, and after sitting at 100% centre pass conversion, only dropped down to 89% in the latter stages of the quarter. In perhaps her best performance for Fever, Shanice Beckford (see below) marshalled the attack, well supported by MVP Alice Teague-Neeld who racked up her 100th game for Fever, with a mixture of brilliant speed and patience when needed to pick the way through Lightning’s defence. 

Fever also finished with a massive 17 gains (Sunday Aryang 6, Kadie-Ann Dehaney and Fran Williams 4), with all team members contributing to a suffocating through court defence. Liz Watson and Leesa Mi Mi were again expensive through the middle, with a collective 12 turnovers, as they were forced into error. Ash Ervin was perhaps their best with 4 gains against the formidable Jhaniele Fowler-Nembhard, but Lightning would be disappointed with some of their team statistics. 

Mavericks v Swifts

After a horrendous eight goals to one start, Mavericks grittily clawed back the deficit to take the lead and then never relinquished it, despite the Swifts attempts to wrestle back control. Mavericks played one of their most complete performances of the season, winning their first ever game against a top three side, and their first ever back to back win. They played with a lot of desperation and heart, and were often the first to any loose ball and led the deflections. But what sealed the deal for them was their treasured possession: they maintained a 100% gain to goal rate and a 75% centre pass to goal rate. 

The defence for the Mavericks was on point with Kim Brown doing a standout job on Helen Housby keeping the English star to only 6/10 goals for 50 minutes of play (comparatively Sophie Fawns scored the same amount in 22 minutes). Amy Parmenter also had her best captain’s knock, forcing the Swifts into multiple changes at wing attack. All of Mavericks’ good work was finished off by Shimona Jok who finished with 61/63. 

Kayla Graham got 17 minutes on court before Vixens forced more changes. Image: Aliesha Vicars

Georgie Horjus shot at 100% and added 24 feeds, strengthening her chances of a Diamonds call up. Image: Aliesha Vicars

‘Oops’. Latty Wilson is all apologies after sending Kiera Austin to the floorboards. Image: Aliesha Vicars

Vixens v Thunderbirds

With both teams wanting a strong game to solidify themselves into finals, it was a seesawing affair but the Thunderbirds were able to maintain control for the majority of the match. The Vixens will be rueing some sloppy handling errors in the final quarter in which they only shot 7 points, as well as an uncharacteristic lack of accuracy at the super shot, with only 3/8 successful attempts across the match. Jo Weston was strong for the Vixens, winding back the clock with four intercepts of her own, forcing Lauren Frew from the court with only five goals from less than a half of netball.

Their fast start, courtesy of a swap between Latanya Wilson and Matilda Garrett a mere 45 seconds into the game, meant despite multiple fight backs from the Vixens still weren’t enough to come away with the win. Wilson was wearing Kiera Austin like a glove and got several clean intercepts as well as scrappy deflections that turned into gained ball. The Thunderbirds defenders were able to push all of the Vixens attackers right into the middle of the court, usually considered prime real estate, it instead created congestion and created several opportunities for loose ball low to the ground. While the pick ups stat is typically lead by Kate Moloney, Jo Weston and Kate Eddy (all sitting in the top 10 across the league), it was the Thunderbirds who trounced them in this match with 13 compared to a measly four. 

Firebirds v Giants

The Giants took home the chocolates in the ultimate tribute to their co-captain Jo Harten’s 200th National League game. All her craft was on display in the first quarter, as Giants shot out to an early lead on the back of some Amy Sligar defensive magic. The game MVP picked off three crucial gains in the Giants’ storming first quarter. The Firebirds were always going to struggle after their goal attack position remains unsettled and losing co-captain Hulita Veve during the week to an ACL injury. However, their spirited fightback on the back of some superb defensive work by Ruby Bakewell-Doran saw them overtake the Giants briefly in the last quarter. 

However, hefty arms over pressure by Casey Kopua – who forced some held balls – and the introduction of supersub Matisse Letherbarrow sealed the match. Fed by Harten, Letherbarrow went on a shooting spree, nailing 8/10 in 11 minutes of play, which included four crucial supershots. Firebirds will rue the match as one that got away, on the back of some sloppy turnovers at pivotal times. 

Mary Cholhok puts up a shot over the strong hold of Casey Kopua. Image: Kylie de Souza | Captured by Ky

Imogen Allison and Maddie Hay get up for the ball. Image: Kylie de Souza | Captured by Ky

Jo Harten had a little run at GA for her 200th match. Image: Kylie de Souza | Captured by Ky

PLAYERS OF THE ROUND

Shanice Beckford (Fever)

Beckford is one of Fever’s quietest achievers, setting up a huge amount of play with her speed and elusiveness, and constantly adding defensive pressure. In this game she notched up 21 centre pass receives, 17 feeds and two gains, but more importantly took the pressure off Jhaniele Fowler-Nembhard. With her Jamaican captain behind her Beckford isn’t known for being prolific at the post, but shot 16/17, at 89% accuracy in perhaps her best game of the season.

Jessie Grenvold (Mavericks)

Despite being a ‘temporary’ injury replacement, Grenvold is putting her hands up for a contract next season. She was brought on five minutes into the Round 12 match, against Grace Nweke no less, and had immediate impact winning a ball from Nweke and followed it up by picking the pocket of Helen Housby. She used her height and spectacular footwork to create confusion for the feeders and forced Nweke into five turnovers. Her partnership with Kim Brown looked a lot calmer than when Brown matches with Liv Lewis which allowed Brown to play a better shut down role on Helen Housby. Grenvold finished the match with two intercepts, one rebound, two pickups and a tidy ten penalties.

Mavericks Jessie Grenvold and Kim Brown (pictured in Round 4) have built a formidable partnership in 2025. Image Shaun Sharp/Sporting Moments by Shaun

Latanya Wilson (Thunderbirds)

While Latty Wilson and teammate Tilly Garrett clocked up an alarming 38 penalties between them, Wilson was also pivotal in disrupting the Vixens’ shooting end. She got hands to pivotal ball, finishing with five gains, but helped force 12 turnovers between the two Vixens shooters. They were held to just seven goals in the last term, as supply dried up under formidable pressure from Wilson and her fellow defenders. 

Amy Sligar (Giants)

Amy Sligar has been relishing more court time this season, and has become one of the Giants’ most consistent performers. She played a crucial role in the first quarter, shutting down Lara Dunkley’s ability to feed the circle, and coming up with three early gains. She added another gain across the match as Dunkley adjusted, but was also pivotal in driving the ball into attack.

Amy Sligar has grown in confidence and impact with more court time. Image: Kylie de Souza | Captured by Ky

QUOTES CORNER

Briony Akle on the changes to her game day 10

“Game day is the last bit of the puzzle in terms of what you put out every week or every day at training. We look at a lot of things to put our ten together and the beauty is we have a great 11. There is competition and you have to perform. Putting the game plan out there and performing at training are parts of that. We will get there.”

Jo Harten on the physicality in the league. 

“It wasn’t too bad tonight. Obviously there were some more obvious things that happen when two players go for the ball and are potentially facing the same way, so there was always going to be a collision. But, I think probably where the game is heading globally, and especially in our league, I think there may be a need for a little bit of a review. I think that is up to World Netball to take the lead on that. But physicality is part and parcel of the game. That is why we are paid to play full time and are getting in the gym to get stronger to protect our bodies and be able to take those hits.”

LADDER

Team / Pts / %
Fever . 40 . 109%
Swifts . 36 . 108%
Vixens . 28 . 101%
Thunderbirds . 24 . 104%
—
Lightning . 24 . 102%
Mavericks . 16 . 96%
Giants . 16 . 92%
Firebirds . 8 . 89% 

NEXT WEEK

(Round 13)

Sat, Jul 5
5pm – SWIFTS v LIGHTNING
7pm – THUNDERBIRDS v MAVERICKS (6:30pm local time)

Sun, Jul 6
2pm – VIXENS v FIREBIRDS
4pm – FEVER v GIANTS (2pm local time)

Ash Barnett was the ultimate impact player and cheerleader for the Firebirds. Image: Kylie de Souza | Captured by Ky.