Super Netball grand final live: Adelaide Thunderbirds vs Melbourne Vixens

Ahead of the final super shot period, Honey has said “C’mon, let’s go for it.” I love her optimism, but surely the Vixens don’t have a chance from here? They’ll have to absolutely shoot the lights out with the two-point shots here. And their accuracy is only sitting at 76 per cent for the game with six and a half minutes to go.

SCORE: TBirds lead 56-35

Midway through the final quarter and the result is clear. The TBirds can soak up this victory now for the final seven minutes. They’re out by 20 goals. Just wow.

SCORE: TBirds lead 55-35

Ellis is in trouble with the umpires. In quick succession she’s taken out another TBirds player with late timing. Flying out of the circle, she wipes out Horjus and the umpire gifts the TBirds a penalty inside the circle. It could have and maybe should have been a two-minute suspension for dangerous play, taking out the landing space of the opposition.

The Vixens recognise they need to take Ellis off the court and so Mannix replaces her at GK as we enter the final 10 minutes of the match.

The official crowd for the 2026 Super Netball Grand Final is 10,040. It’s the highest ever netball crowd at John Cain Arena. The first time the sport has cracked 10k here.

Ellis was late to a challenge on Heffernan and the umpire has advanced the penalty to inside the circle. Bad timing there led to a collision on the TBirds centre.

SCORE: TBirds lead 47-31

Her team may have dropped their heads, they look seriously deflated, but Vixens coach Di Honey still believes her team can win. She’s made a host of changes for the final quarter. Austin is on the bench, Graham is at GA. Walters shifts into WD.

“We have absolutely nothing to lose … You are in this, I know it doesn’t feel like it, but let’s play this last quarter and win this last quarter like Vixens do.”

Another quarter where the TBirds have had a strangehold on the Vixens and they fail to reach double digits. A 13-9 quarter the way of the team in pink. This match is almost tied up already and we’ve still got 15 minutes to play. This game has been played at such a high intensity and such a speed that I’ll be honest, it’s been quite difficult to blog! No other match throughout the 2026 finals series has felt this quick. The TBirds are on another level tonight. Based on this form, I don’t think any team would have stood a chance.

The Vixens shooters have lost their heads. Not only are they not focused on the pass but their accuracy is falling away too. Wilson is really starting to hit her stride in this quarter. She took an intercept which the TBirds didn’t convert. In fact, they threw it out of court in transition. But when Austin missed a shot she was again first to the rebound and in the same passage of play, with the ball going end to end and back again, her team eventually rewarded her. It’s the repeated efforts that are getting in the heads of the Vixens. They’ve lost all trust in their game.

SCORE: TBirds lead 41-28

Tania Obst tells her side to take “a big deep breath”. They are throwing ball away a little more this quarter but in the scheme of things, they’re up by a huge margin! Their coach is a tough marker. Coming out of the break, Horjus goes into GA. Frew is off. Tayla Williams enters the match at WA. Usually when this switch happens for the TBirds, they really start to pull away. Horjus is very difficult to shut down at GA.

SCORE: TBirds lead 40-26

As Wilson gets up to a ball, she is sandwiched by Mundy and Eddy. Falling to the ground, Wilson lands on Eddy and her head hits the deck. The doctor will need to assess that collision and decide whether Eddy will have to come off for a concussion check. Both Vixens players got caught in the wrong place then, they weren’t necessarily challenging for ball but did unintentionally take out Wilson’s landing space. Thankfully everybody looks okay.

The Vixens are desperately trying to win ball back as Ellis takes an intercept. She came flying out of the circle to pinch possession in the TBirds goal third.

SCORE: TBirds lead37-23

Sterling-Humphrey was hedging on Garbin and as Moloney tries to send a short ball into her shooter, her reflexes get the better of the Vixens. A touch pushes possession into the hands of Wilson and the TBirds convert the opportunity at the other end.

SCORE: 37-22 TBirds lead

The 22-year-old is a bit of an unsung hero. Sometimes she flies under the radar because she is such a great tagger. She has shut down the Vixens’ midcourt nicely since coming on at WD in the second quarter and helps the TBirds convert first in this third quarter.

SCORE: TBirds lead 33-20

Here you can see the Vixens are spending a lot of time standing beside their opposition. They’ve had 12 more penalties than the Thunderbirds already at half-time. They are also seriously behind on the gain stat. They need to get more clean hand to ball and to score quicker. Get the feet moving and lift the workrate to get in front of the opposition player. They’re taking seven more seconds to score and a key breakdown has been the isolation of Austin. The Vixens GA is usually the linchpin in attack but she’s already got six general play turnovers in 30 minutes of netball. Another key stat that tells us the TBirds are humming along is that GK Sterling-Humphrey has four gains and C Heffernan has three. They are making life very difficult for the Vixens.

WOW. The Vixens are only converting 44 per cent of their centre passes. That’s a terrible grand final stat that needs to be fixed immediately. If they can treasure the ball and trust their connections, instead of trying to pass back out of the circle onto the circle edge they’ll have a better chance. Right now they’re better in transition than they are off their own centre pass which is just a basic execution. With the TBirds scoring eight of the last 10 goals heading into the main break, you can see momentum is clearly with the minor premiers.

WHAT A TURNAROUND! The Thunderbirds won that second quarter 21 points to 8. To restrict the Vixens to less than double digits speaks to their defensive dominance. A couple of differences about the way they approached this period involved the hold of shooter Van der Berg — she managed to break free of the hold of Ellis and get on a roll. Meanwhile, the defenders really started to lift their workrate. The Vixens are passing the ball too high around their goal third and its playing right into the hands of the flightly Jamaican defenders. We are seeing a pattern emerge with the scoreline, similar to the major semifinal. Then, the Vixens lead 14-12 at the first break but were outscored 13-9 in the second quarter.

Heffernan speaks with Fox Netball: “We’re really trying to stop their short options and ball speed because we know that’s what they’re great at.”

A pass between the Vixens shooters is deemed by the umpires to be short. As Graham tries to offload to Austin. How can that be if Sterling-Humphrey was able to get a touch on it? The TBirds punish and add another to their tally.

SCORE: TBirds lead 29-20

Graham follows Austin’s lead.

SCORE: Vixens lead 27-20

Back on for the super shot period, Austin lines up her second two-point goal of the game and it’s desperately needed for the Vixens.

SCORE: TBirds lead 26-18

“No more bounce passes, we need more options okay, everyone is standing still,” Di Honey is desperately trying to correct course. Her team were up at the break but are quickly falling behind with 5:37 left in the second period. She’s made more changes. Lily Graham enters the game at GA to replace Austin.

For the TBirds, they’ve brought Sophie Casey on at WD and moved Wilson into GD.

SCORE: TBirds lead 23-16

Austin tries to get a bounce pass away to Mundy as they try to increase their ball speed but there’s too much on it and the ball heads over the sideline. Easy turnover for the Thunderbirds. They’ve come out of the break with fire in their belly and the Vixens haven’t been able to match that intensity.

SCORE: TBirds lead19-14