The Victorian Fury will head into the 2016 Australian Netball League (ANL) finals series in winning form after completing the double against the Queensland Fusion at the Carrara Indoor Sports Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
Led superbly by Melbourne Vixens shooter Emma Ryde in attack, the Fury proved too strong on Sunday prevailing 55-44.
The victory followed a much tougher 46-42 win on Saturday at the Gold Coast Convention and Exhibition Centre.
Captain Fiona Themann was a standout across the two matches. She was pleased that the Fury were able to secure two wins this week ahead of the ANL finals in June.
“I think we put out a really good performance today,” Themann said.
“There were patches we can build on, but we will now take that confidence into the finals in three week’s time following our two wins this weekend.”
The Fury dominated the opening half on the back of a dominant shooting performance in attack by Ryde, coupled with Ella Bayliss’ ability to provide her shooters with expert feeds.
The Fury saw their lead reduced to one-goal in the second half before a run of four consecutive goals late in the game to Ryde saw the Fury regain the ascendancy and power to an 11-goal win.
In training, the Fury have been working on closing out their opposition once they establish a double-digit lead.
“We need to get better at putting the opposition away once we have established a 10 or 11-goal lead. But credit to Queensland, they kept coming back and really gave us a tough match towards the end.”
The Fury will now have three weeks to prepare for the ANL finals series which will take place at Sydney Olympic Park from 25-26 June.
