The West Coast Fever have won their maiden national netball league trophy, clinching the Super Netball title with a 70-59 victory over the Melbourne Vixens in the grand final at Perth Arena.
Leading from start to finish, the Fever won each of the four quarters to assert their dominance in front of a home crowd of 13,908 people — a new attendance record for a Super Netball match.
In the 25 years the club has existed, first as the Perth Orioles (1997-2007) and later the West Coast Fever (2008-current), it has never quite been able to achieve the feat until now.
Although the team's most successful campaigns have come during the Super Netball era, where they've made it to three of the past four finals series and contested the grand final twice ... they've also made a habit of falling short in these matches by the narrowest of margins.
But, the journey to greatness is rarely linear and the side has been building momentum during that time.
They've maintained a core group of players since 2018 — Courtney Bruce, Jhaniele Fowler, Stacey Francis-Bayman, Verity Simmons and Jess Anstiss — and gained a reputation as one of the toughest teams to face in the Australian league.
As it happens, all they needed to take their game to the next level was a fresh set of eyes from incoming coach Dan Ryan who, with a couple of key tweaks to their tactics and mindset, has proved the difference this year.
As it happened
The Fever have a fierce rivalry with the Vixens that has only intensified during 2022, with the two teams fighting relentlessly over the top position on the ladder.
The Vixens might have won the minor premiership and their two regular-season match-ups in Round 4 (75-66) and Round 10 (70-64), but the Fever ambushed them in the major semi-final (71-62) to be the first team through to the decider.
Now they have followed up that performance with more dominance in the grand final, starting strong and keeping their foot on the pedal for the entire 60 minutes.
In the first quarter, the Fever were ready to pounce, as goal keeper and captain Courtney Bruce set the tone with five deflections.
Despite picking up extra ball, the side struggled to convert it early on, as the Fever tried to force connections and handed possession straight back to the Vixens.
Part of this was because the Vixens' circle defenders, Emily Mannix and Jo Weston, were doubling up on Fowler, taking the Jamaican out of the game and making it too hard to feed her the ball.
But as time went on, the Fever's repeated efforts in defence started to come to fruition, especially as goal attack Sasha Glasgow stepped up to the plate.
With Fowler a non-option, Glasgow took on more responsibility in the circle to open up space and shoulder the shooting load.
This forced the Vixens to change tactics, peeling off Fowler's body to cover Glasgow and allowing for a more one-on-one battle for the ball.
The early space afforded to Glasgow saw her sink four goals in that opening quarter — more than she had shot in the entire semi-final a fortnight ago.
See, Glasgow's game is usually focused on setting up Fowler, but her awareness about switching roles in these critical moments meant the Fever were still able to dictate play.
At the first break, the team in green led 18-14 and by the second quarter, Glasgow's work rate had encouraged Fowler to come into the game.
Now the shackles were off, and Fowler was free to attack the ball, taking charge in her sweet spot right in front of the post.
As Fowler's confidence grew, the Vixens got stuck on the body and their growing penalty count (38-24) meant they were spending a lot of time out of play.
Meanwhile, the defensive pressure from Fever wing defence Jess Anstiss needs to be highlighted, as, heading into this match, she faced one of the toughest challenges on court.
Matching up against Diamonds captain and Vixens wing attack Liz Watson is no easy task, yet through her relentless defensive pressure, Anstiss was able to put the usually slick Watson off her game (seven general play turnovers).
At half-time, the Fever led 35-29, with no signs of slowing down.
Heading into the third-quarter, Vixens coach Simone McKinnis was left scrambling for answers and decided to inject Olivia Lewis into the game as goal keeper.
Lewis had moved from the Fever to the Vixens this season and had already shown she was capable of using that inside knowledge against Fowler in some of their earlier meetings this year.
Alas, the change had no real effect and the Vixens' penalty woes only continued to grow (60-36), making the Fever's route to the post even easier.
Fowler reached full strength during these 15 minutes, shooting 16 goals at 100 per cent accuracy to see the hosts up 54-45 at the final break.
In previous years this margin might have been enough to start the celebrations, but the Vixens were in this exact position a week ago in the preliminary final and still managed to claw their way back from a nine-goal deficit to beat the Giants.
Knowing this, and that the two-point super shot still gave them a slim chance, McKinnis made more changes to her line-up to try to inspire another comeback.
But the Fever were determined to finish strong and played their most composed quarter of the 2022 season yet.
And as Fowler replicated her third-quarter efforts, shooting another 16 goals at 100 per cent, Bruce played her part at the back, stealing four rebounds to put the final nail in the coffin.
New coach, new mindset
Under Dan Ryan, the Fever have built a new level of confidence and self-belief.
Ryan has been on a similar mission this season to prove his worth in the Australian netball league, after his first stint as a head coach of a Super Netball club didn't quite go to plan.
Back in 2017 and 2018, while he was at the helm of the Adelaide Thunderbirds, the team claimed back-to-back wooden spoons and lost 27 matches in a row.
On the outer, he moved to England in 2019 to try and keep his coaching dream alive, finding opportunity with the Manchester Thunder as an assistant and with Northern Ireland as their head coach.
Ryan says he took a pay cut and mainly lived off his savings during this time, but the sacrifice paid off when he landed a full-time gig with the Leeds Rhinos.
The brand new franchise were looking to enter the UK Superleague and put their trust in him as high performance director as well as head coach to build a team from scratch.
In 2021, the Rhinos made it to the Superleague finals in their debut season under Ryan's watch and this put him back on the radar in Australia and in a good position to apply for the Fever job.
Now he's bought a house in Western Australia and he says he plans on staying there for a very long time.
"I've always felt like there was great synergy between my story and this club's story, and I'm a huge believer that if you're willing to lean into the hardships and the tough times that they will be the moments that make you who you are … there have certainly been testing and challenging times for me, but they have made me the coach that I am right now," he said.
"I know for these girls as well, the failures and the struggles they've had in recent years have allowed them the opportunity to realise what it takes to get over the line and sometimes you need to go through the rough stuff to really appreciate what it's like to be a champion.
"I'm just so proud that they get to experience it because we always believed we could do this, and if you believe in yourself and the people around you, then great things can happen."
A coming of age moment for Bruce
Fever skipper Courtney Bruce has been waiting a long time for this moment, considering the West Australian native made her debut for the Fever way back in 2013.
She first took on the captaincy in 2018 and has experienced a lot more heartbreak than glory during that time.
Now with a premiership medal around her neck and her hands on the Super Netball trophy, she finally understands the English proverb: Good things come to those who wait.
"This is a fairytale, I bleed green and all of that previous heartbreak was 100 per cent worth it," Bruce said after the match.
"They say life is meant to have its ups and downs, but I would go through everything again to make sure that we were standing here today with a premiership and with this medal around my neck.
"This club means everything to me and I've grown a lot from when I first took on the role as a very young captain, so this is something that will stay with me forever."
