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'Shell-shocked' Giants felled by fluid Fever

Esther LinderAAP
Jhaniele Fowler-Nembhard has scored 70 of her team's 84 goals in a dominant performance. (Richard Wainwright/AAP PHOTOS)
Camera IconJhaniele Fowler-Nembhard has scored 70 of her team's 84 goals in a dominant performance. (Richard Wainwright/AAP PHOTOS) Credit: AAP

West Coast Fever have kept a cool head to cut down the Giants 84-65 in Super Netball's season opener.

The home crowd at Sydney's Ken Rosewall Arena on Saturday kept the pressure on against a Fever side that won both clashes between the teams last season, and only missed out on the grand final by a single goal.

The visitors began to dominate as the first quarter progressed, the lacklustre Giants defence spitting up the ball time after time to deadly Fever goal shooter Jhaniele Fowler-Nembhard.

The Jamaican superstar finished with 70 of her team's 84 goals in a dominant performance.

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West Coast coach Dan Ryan said the "clinical" approach was a result of strong work in pre-season and a team-wide commitment to performance.

"I thought everyone played their role, the changes were seamless," he said.

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They may have been trailing on the scoreboard, but a backwards step goal from Jo Harten in the second quarter showed off the partnership between the Giants captain and dynamic goal attack Sophie Dwyer.

A fluid West Coast attack provided plenty of ammunition to set up a 45-34 halftime score.

Despite the Fever making much less use of the Super Shot - they scored four goals from nine attempts compared to the Giants' 14 from 23 - they still managed to come out nearly 20 goals on top.

Trailing 67-50 at the final change, the Giants fought hard in a fourth quarter that ended 17-15 in the Fever's favour.

"At the moment, I'm struggling to find too much that I'm happy with," the Giants' four-time premiership coach Julie Fitzgerald said.

"I think we were a little bit shell-shocked to begin with in the first half of that match. We certainly didn't play the way we've been training.

"Everyone's got to step up."

A post-match huddle came to a close with Harten telling her team they needed to take responsibility for the result.

"It wasn't good enough," she said.

"But I don't want us to hang our heads on around one loss. There's so many more games to play, and there's so many more quarters to be won."

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