MELBOURNE — There was a moment, deep in the fourth quarter of the Melbourne derby, when the entire logic of the season appeared to be reasserting itself. The Vixens had clawed back from four goals down to level the contest at 50-50, riding the momentum that had delivered them five consecutive wins over their cross-town rivals since the Mavericks’ 2024 debut. That record — and everything it implied about the distance between a third-season club and a reigning champion — felt like it was about to survive another Sunday afternoon.
It didn’t. What followed was nine consecutive Mavericks goals, the last five from Tongan shooter Uneeq Palavi, and a final score of 59-50 that ended the most consequential regular-season match the club has played. Coach Gerard Murphy’s side had already clinched a finals berth — confirmed the previous evening when Sunshine Coast Lightning fell to the Queensland Firebirds — but Sunday’s result at a sold-out John Cain Arena carried weight that extended well beyond ladder position.
It was the first time the Mavericks had beaten the Vixens in any form. And it arrived in the final round of the home-and-away season, with the defending champions entering the finals having now lost three of their last four outings.
Jamie-Lee Price, named player of the match after finishing with 90.5 net points, joined the club from the Giants at the start of this season. She described what the win meant in terms that were difficult to dismiss as post-match formality. “I feel like we keep creating history and that’s the special thing about it because this club is so young,” Price told Fox Sports. “We just keep making ourselves proud every week.”
The match had the shape of the contest Netball Australia had advertised. The Mavericks controlled the first quarter through their midcourt engine room, with Price and the kind of gain-to-goal conversion that had eluded them in the extra-time loss to these same Vixens back in Round 3. Jessie Grenvold, recently named in the Australian Diamonds squad, won an early intercept inside the circle to set the tone; by quarter time the Mavericks led 15-10, with the Vixens unable to find the rhythm that had dismantled the Thunderbirds’ defence in previous weeks.
The second term belonged entirely to the reigning premiers. Kate Moloney and Hannah Mundy rebuilt the Vixens’ midcourt authority; Emily Mannix came on at goal keeper and immediately altered the defensive mathematics, picking up intercepts that converted directly to Sophie Garbin at the other end. The Vixens won the quarter 15-10 and headed into the main break at 25-25, having clawed back a deficit that had felt decisive forty minutes earlier. The Mavericks had led the gain count 10-5 for the half, yet were converting at only 40 per cent from those possessions — a discrepancy, as in sport’s tightest contests, that could not persist.
It didn’t persist. The Mavericks cleaned up their unforced errors in the third term and re-established the five-goal margin they had enjoyed at the first break, heading into the final change ahead 44-40. But the Vixens weren’t done. Within minutes of the restart they had closed to within a single goal; Garbin converted a rebound from a Sacha McDonald miss to level the contest at 48-48 for the first time in the fourth quarter. Murphy called a timeout. The crowd at John Cain Arena, packed with Vixens supporters, had found their voice again.
What happened next is what will define this Mavericks season in the memory of anyone watching. From 50-50, Palavi — introduced only at the start of the final term — and her teammates scored nine consecutive goals without reply, finishing 59-50. The Vixens’ defence, which had been so effective in the second quarter, had no answer. Murphy suggested the psychological impact of back-to-back wins over top-three teams — the Mavericks had also beaten West Coast Fever the previous week — was meaningful. “It might be five per cent,” he said of the doubt it removed, “but it’s five per cent of doubt that they don’t have anymore.”
The performance metrics are hard to argue with. Grenvold finished with 77 net points and six gains. Palavi, who played only one quarter, converted 12 of her 13 attempts — including the shots that closed out the match. Shimona Nelson, before being rested, had already put up 40 goals from 43 attempts. For the Vixens, according to Netball Australia’s match report, Garbin was the lone consistent performer, finishing with 30 from 32 attempts in a match where the collective couldn’t replicate the output of their best individual.
The ladder consequences are significant. Adelaide Thunderbirds are confirmed as minor premiers with one round remaining, the Vixens trailing by eight points to lock in second. The Mavericks sit third but face a final-round reckoning: a win and a Fever loss next weekend would confirm third place — and with it, the right to host the minor semi-final. According to the Australian Associated Press, Price called the past 48 hours the kind that lets a group “play freely and have some fun” — a franchise that did not exist four years ago now preparing to host a finals fixture.
The more awkward question hangs over the Vixens. Three defeats in four matches is not a crisis for a side that will play finals regardless, but it is a form problem entering a finals series. Their next outing is against West Coast Fever at John Cain Arena — a match they need to win both to rebuild momentum and to lock in their anticipated major semi-final matchup against the Thunderbirds. What they cannot rely on is the institutional memory of having handled these opponents before. The Mavericks, in their nine-goal closing run on Sunday, demonstrated that record no longer counts for much as the season approaches its final reckoning.
What remains unanswered is whether the Vixens’ second-quarter response — when they overturned a five-goal deficit through individual brilliance — is the more accurate signal of their finals capacity, or whether the collapse that followed it is. One round remains to find out.
