{"id":778579,"date":"2026-07-04T13:23:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-04T13:23:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/778579\/"},"modified":"2026-07-04T13:23:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-04T13:23:10","slug":"super-netball-grand-final-2026-adelaide-thunderbirds-v-melbourne-vixens-at-john-cain-arena","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/778579\/","title":{"rendered":"Super Netball grand final 2026: Adelaide Thunderbirds v Melbourne Vixens at John Cain Arena"},"content":{"rendered":"

After a fiery opening quarter, the Melbourne Vixens were up by one point at the break, sending the 10,000 strong crowd at John Cain Arena a message, \u2018We\u2019re capable of winning this\u2019.<\/p>\n

Despite entering the Super Netball Grand Final as the reigning premiers, the Vixens were statistically the underdog, facing Adelaide Thunderbirds, who clinched the minor premiership with a near flawless season of 13 wins.<\/p>\n

\"VixensVixens look on after their grand final loss Getty Images<\/p>\n

After the first quarter, it looked like the grand final match could be a proper clash of the titans; a nail bitingly close finale that could go down to the wire.<\/p>\n

Then the siren signalled the start of the second quarter, and the Adelaide Thunderbirds inflicted irreparable damage \u2013 an extraordinary 21 goal blitz the hometown heroes were never going to recover from.<\/p>\n

Leading the ruthless goal onslaught was 191-centimetre, South African-born shooter Elmere van de berg, who was a force to be reckoned with. The top scorer in the UK\u2019s Netball Super League in 2025, Van der Berg made her debut for the Thunderbirds this season and has risen to become one of the league\u2019s deadliest players.<\/p>\n

Out of her 52 shots at goal on Saturday evening, van de Berg scored 51 of them.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Adelaide Thunderbirds now have three premierships \u2013 the most successful team in the SSN era. Getty Images<\/p>\n

Despite winning the minor premiership, the Thunderbirds travelled to Melbourne for the decider, thanks to Netball Australia\u2019s ongoing $15 million sponsorship deal with Visit Victoria, which expires in June 2027.<\/a><\/p>\n

The visitors at times battled a hostile home crowd, copping jeers and boos, but ultimately had the last laugh, triumphing 61-40. The result marked their third titles in four years – the most successful club in the Suncorp Super Netball era.<\/p>\n

In a post match press conference, a devastated Vixens captain Kate Moloney was brief but succinct,saying \u201cthe second quarter killed us\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re team [The Thunderbirds] that when they get on top of you they really start to come out of their skins and win ball.,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I felt we didn\u2019t stand up to it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe weren\u2019t strong enough in that moment, we didn\u2019t have enough fight and enough hunger to go and get the ball back, and I think that\u2019s what hurts so much.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vixens coach Di honey was equally critical of the team\u2019s performance and said her message to the Vixens at half-time was to be \u201cmore accountable, disciplined and composed.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cThere was 36 turnovers or something. It\u2019s ridiculous for this level,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re not going to win games with that many turnovers.\u201d <\/p>\n

Moloney said she was proud of the team for making three consecutive grand finals, but was adamant tonight\u2019s performance was not good enough and said her teammates would be hurting.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, I think what hurts the most today is that the performance we put out there wasn\u2019t good enough for the people who turned up to watch,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got the most loyal supporters, who come each and every week, and to lose by 20 something goals is really tough, but to think that we\u2019ve been consistently at the top, is a credit to our club, to the organisation, and what they put into it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After a fiery opening quarter, the Melbourne Vixens were up by one point at the break, sending the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":778580,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-778579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/778579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=778579"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/778579\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/778580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=778579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=778579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=778579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}