Netball
AAP 6y

In-form West Coast keep Magpies winless

Netball

West Coast Fever have continued their hot start to the Super Netball season and kept the Collingwood Magpies winless with a 68-57 victory at Perth Arena.

Fever backed up an 18-goal win over the Thunderbirds in Adelaide with a commanding 11-goal victory against the Magpies, who also lost a heartbreaker to the Melbourne Vixens last week.

Fever won three of the four quarters too to claim three bonus points to go with the win with Jamaican superstar Jhaniele Fowler dominant shooting 62 of 67 in attack.

Nat Medhurst was wonderful setting her up and hitting six of seven herself with the West Coast mid-court of Verity Charles, Ingrid Colyer and Jess Anstiss terrific.

Caitlin Thwaites scored 39 of 45 for Collingwood and Erin Bell 17 of 27. But Fever's defence of Stacey Francis and Courtney Bruce did well opposed to them.

Fever coach Stacey Marinkovic was delighted with the performance, particularly the pressure they applied.

"The girls were sensational. We knew it was going to be a lot more physical and the pace of the game was a lot faster," she said.

"We just had to lock into the way we wanted to play and I think our defensive pressure across the whole court really gave Stacey and Courts the opportunity to hunt some ball and they really played their role.

"Stacey did some great job in her one-on-one D and pulled in some great ball."

Magpies coach Kristy Keppich-Birrell took some positives from the performance.

"The discipline of our players has been something that we've really been striving towards in the off-season," she said.

"So to see our penalty count down below the other team was a really good improvement for us. We're really proud of that."

Collingwood started well with Thwaites scoring the opening three goals and Fowler's first attempt on her new home floor a nervous miss.

She soon settled and Fever won the opening quarter and then went on a run of six straight goals and nine of 10 to open a seven-goal lead during the second. The Magpies took Bell out and put Shae Brown in at goal attack.

Fever won the second quarter 19-12 to lead 34-26 going into the half.

Bell returned in the third quarter hitting 10 goals helping the Magpies win the quarter 19-17 and claim the bonus point and close the deficit to six.

Fever finished the job in the fourth quarter with Fowler delivering another 16 goals as they won the period 17-12 and the game by 11 goals.

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