The Vixens’ thrilling one-goal Melbourne derby win has been overshadowed by a season-ending knee injury to Mavericks recruit Tara Hinchliffe which left players in tears on the sidelines.
Hinchliffe’s third outing for her new club the Melbourne Mavericks ended in disaster when she went down clutching her right knee late in the final term, before her teammates could rally and send the match into extra time.
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On Monday, the Mavericks confirmed it was the worst possible news for the star defender – she ruptured her ACL and would now miss the rest of the 2026 season.
“Our hearts go out to Tara,” club GM Shae Bolton-Brown said.
“You hate to see anyone taken out of the sport for a period of time in this way, but with what she has brought to the club – both on and off the court – in the few short months she’s been here, we honestly can’t remember what the club was like without her.”
“What Tara is going through now is what has really hit us all hard.
“However, we’re here to support Tara in any and every way that she needs as she works through her rehabilitation and looks towards what’s next for her in the short- to medium-term. And whilst she will be greatly missed on court, we know she still is a vital part of our club, and will continue to be a highly-valued, strong leader off the court.”
It’s the third ACL injury for Hinchliffe, who also missed the 2023 Super Netball season while playing for the Sunshine Coast Lightning.“She flew out for a ball … head the deck hard,” Fox Netball’s Bianca Chatfield said of Hinchliffe’s latest blow.
“It’s very hard to watch – you can see the tears in (teammate Reilley) Batcheldor’s eyes.
“It’s really distressing scenes down here – Tara Hinchliffe looked straight to the bench and shook her head. We know she’s done ACLs before. Reilley Batcheldor looking on, she’s emotional as well,” Kelsey Browne added from the sideline.
“(Tara) did look to the bench and shook her head – she didn’t want to move,” Madison Browne said.
“Unfortunately in that moment sometimes it’s a knowing and you hope that’s not the case, you hope that you’re wrong. But it almost seems like Tara Hinchliffe is resigned to that (another ACL tear),” Kelsey Browne then added.
The injury overshadowed what had been a tremendous fight by the Mavericks in their second successive one-goal loss, 72-71 on Saturday.
Having led by as much as six goals in the final term, the Mavericks stalled late as the Vixens went on a three-minute tear to snatch the lead late in the contest.
With her side trailing by three with less than two minutes to play, Hinchliffe went out hunting for ball – but crashed heavily to the John Cain Arena court.
Play was stopped while Hinchliffe received medical treatment.
Teammate Shimona Jok nailed a supershot when the match restarted before an off-side call against Vixens defender Jo Weston ensured the Mavs had the chance to win it in the dying seconds – instead they opted for the one goal to level scores and send the match into extra time.
But it wasn’t to be as the Vixens’ experience proved too much – Sophie Garbin leading the way with all nine of her team’s extra time goals, while for the Mavs their missed supershots were costly.
Speaking after the match, Mavericks skipper Amy Parmenter fought back tears as the side’s injury curse rolled on.
“She’s so important to our group – I’m going to cry,” she said of Hinchliffe.
“No matter what happens, she’ll be so important to us on and off the court, we’ve got her.”
In three Super Netball seasons, the Mavericks have managed to name their contracted 10 players in the same game just three times – following serious injuries to Sasha Glasgow and Lauren Parkinson in their debut year and Eleanor Cardwell last season.
The club says Hinchliffe is now “consulting with medical specialists to determine the best course of treatment and rehabilitation”.
It’s a devastating blow for Diamond #190 after Hinchliffe had featured in the most recent Australian camp and was pushing her case for a squad recall while at her new club.
FEVER BOUNCE BACK WITH GIANTS THUMPING
Jenny Sinclair
West Coast Fever have put last week’s horror performance behind them as they spanked Giants Netball to record their equal biggest ever win against them by 19 points in Perth. It was a subpar Super Netball outing for the Giants, as they scored off just 56 per cent of their centre passes, and gave up 24 errors and 68 penalties.
Fever’s dominance saw them rack up their eighth consecutive win against the Sydneysiders, who are still developing their youngsters and having won just two quarters this season look some distance off most of the competition.
Giants’ coach Nerida Stewart particularly lamented the amount of turnovers her attackers gifted away. She said, “It’s not so much the opposition that we’re playing that’s letting us down at the moment. It’s our own delivery of what we’re trying to put out there.
“They know it, they know the plan, they know what to deliver on, and now it’s just making sure we’re a bit clinical in that execution.”
While there were few highlights for the Giants, they’d be heartened by the return of Jodi-Ann Ward from last year’s ACL injury, and the continued good form of Amy Sligar, who’s been rewarded as a Diamonds’ invitee.
Unfortunately for fellow invitee Lucy Austin, she was smothered by Fever’s defensive line, shooting just seven from nine at 78 per cent, before being subbed off early in the second quarter.
In a messy opening term, the ball flew from end to end after the Giants thrice hefted the ball over the baseline in attack. Fever settled first with Romelda Aiken-George withstanding immense aerial pressure from Jane Watson and Erin O’Brien.
In a stand out performance for her side, Watson gave away 15 centimetres to Aiken-George, with the Jamaican finishing with 53/61 despite rarely being able to take an easy pass.
At the opposite end, Fever defenders Kadie-Ann Dehaney and Fran Williams were effective against the Giants’ shooters. While Matisse Letherbarrow was subbed on for Austin, it was double trouble for her side as Sophie Dwyer was also well held by English skipper Williams, who is relishing extra court time this season. Dwyer lifted to finish with 13 goals, while Dehaney was the star of the defensive circle with eight gains earning MVP honours.
With consistent performers all over the court, Fever took a 14 point lead into half time. And while wing attack Alice Teague-Neeld continued her rock solid form including a massive 60 feeds, opponent Sligar hassled her at every opportunity as she showcased why she’s caught the eye of Australian selectors.
DOMINANT TITLE FAVOURITES FLEX MUSCLE
Emma Greenwood
It’s meant to be Super Netball’s Battle of the Birds but while one team soared, the other failed to get off the ground.
The Adelaide Thunderbirds have underlined their status as favourites for the Super Netball title this season, hammering the Queensland Firebirds 73-46 at Nissan Arena.
The margin was the biggest in Super Netball history for the Thunderbirds, beating the 26 points by which they bested the Melbourne Mavericks in 2024.
It comes on the back of a record score in the opening round of the season, and a record low turnovers last week for the Adelaide side.
The Firebirds have now not won for over a season, their last victory coming in round 2 last year.
And while they faced a quality opposition in the Thunderbirds, a side that boasts unmatched talent and depth this year, the simple mistakes and schoolgirl errors that have blighted the Firebirds over the past year, continued to haunt their performance.
Passes that fly over the head of their intended targets, defensive mix-ups and an inability to promote the ball quickly erase the good things the Firebirds have put on court and have the potential to sap the confidence of the Queenslanders.
The writing was on the wall from the opening stages of the match, with the Firebirds down 3-0 in the opening 90 seconds after an early turnover.
And it was a massive 12 points at the end of the first quarter after the Thunderbirds won the term 21-9, with the Firebirds making a massive eight turnovers in the period and converting their centre passes at a woeful 47 per cent.
Coach Kiri Wills pulled the trigger on changes early, taking starting shooter Mary Cholhok off after just 12 minutes as she struggled to deal with pressure from Shamera Sterling-Humphrey, inserting young goaler Elsa Sif Sandholt, who was able to present better for the ball.
Sandholt had 13 points – on 100 per cent shooting, including two from super shot range – by halftime and finished with 30 points, including six two-pointers, missing just two shots in the match.
Her efforts helped reduce the T-Birds’ dominance in the second term, in particular, and was a silver lining for the Firebirds.
She couldn’t stop Shamera Sterling-Humphrey though, who finished with MVP honours for the second week in a row, after a massive 13 gains including five intercepts and six rebounds.
“That young shooter that came on did extremely well, I’m glad to see when young shooters are coming on and doing well and I’m still able to get the job done,” Sterling-Humphrey said.
THUNDERBIRDS THE REAL DEAL
It would have been a struggle to find any Super Netball fan that didn’t have the Thunderbirds in their final four calculations for this season – and many rated their premiership favourites.
But few would have predicted the dominance they’ve shown in the opening weeks of the competition, especially given the absences they had in the pre-season with so many of their charges on international duty, or like Sterling-Humphrey, making their way back from maternity leave.
The addition of Elmere van der Berg – whose 52 points, from 48/59 shooting, including four super shots, gave her a tally of 165 goals from just three rounds – and Silver Ferns midcourter Kate Heffernan, has given them a team most will battle to match this season.
The T-Birds rotated all 10 players on to the court, including four through the shooting circle, something coach Tania Obst was pleased to be able to do, although she conceded it could be a challenge to bring the right people into the game at the right time.
She’s adamant though that the Thunderbirds will not be getting ahead of themselves despite their slick start.
“There’s a long way to go, but we’ll methodically work our way through it,” Obst said.
“Love it that our fans are all excited by what we’re putting out there. We want to play well for our fans, and that’s going to be our challenge around, how do we maintain our standards and keep pushing forward as a team where we feel we can keep going.”
SOMETHING ABOUT MARY
Cholhok entered Super Netball last year with a massive reputation on the back of years of dominance internationally and in England’s Netball Super League.
But Super Netball is a different beast and the 201cm Ugandan has battled at times, to be a dominant post-up player against some of the best and most physical defenders in the world.
She struggled against Sterling-Humphrey though, with the Firebirds finding it difficult to get clean ball into the circle to either her or goal attack Te Paea Selby-Rickit.
With midcourter Maddy Gordon out injured, the Firebirds carried four goalers into the T-Birds clash but the performance of Sandholt could cause some headaches for Wills, who may eventually have to choose between the homegrown rising star and her gun import.
“We obviously have to take care of the players within our group and make sure that everybody’s okay with where we’re at,” Wills said.
“The reality is, you have to perform and you have to do your job. And (Sandholt) has definitely put her hand up to be selected for that position.
“But I don’t want to be reactive too quickly. I just want to make sure the rest of our team is okay.”
LIGHTNING ROLL SWIFTS LATE
The hero last week for the NSW Swifts, Helen Housby couldn’t repeat the dose against the Sunshine Coast on Saturday night, with her late supershot miss allowing the Lightning to hold on to a thrilling one-goal win.
A run of Donnell Wallam goals in the fourth quarter ensured the home side opened up a five-goal lead with less than 10 minutes to play.
But the Swifts refused to give in as they took the lead late.
The Housby miss allowed Wallam to land her 54th goal – and with 45 seconds to play, the Lightning then hung onto the ball to grind out a 66-65 win.
“They have clipped the wings of this star-studded NSW Swifts side,” Fox Netball’s Cath Cox said.
“They’ve just proven again they can win the tight ones.”
It’s Sunshine Coast’s second successive one-goal win after last week’s victory over rivals the Queensland Firebirds.
“Two weeks in a row – I tell you it’s probably not good for the heart,” MVP Cara Koenen said.
Swifts mid-courter Maddy Proud identified that her team had moments of brilliance, but lacked the consistency across the game.
“When the defence was firing the attack seemed to drop off, and then when the attackers picked up the defence dropped off. So we need to make sure we are firing on all cylinders at once, not rely on one or the other to steady the ship,” Proud said.
The loss sees the Swifts sink to 1-2 – ahead of only the winless Firebirds and Giants who both play Sunday.
For Koenen, the match showed her growth in her new role as Lightning’s starting goal attack as her connection with Wallam builds.
She was able to use her height to match up in the air with fellow Diamond Sarah Klau, and nullify her impact on the game. She finished with 12 from 16 goals in an MVP performance.
The physical pressure inside the Swifts attacking circle was getting to Grace Nweke, as she gave away multiple offensive contacts trying to fend off her defenders. Despite the early frustration, she finished with 50 from 56.
-With Newswire
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