Netball: Magic fall to Thunderbirds

Australia's dominance of the trans-Tasman netball championship continued in Adelaide today as Adelaide Thunderbirds condemned Waikato Bay-Bay of Plenty Magic to more grand final heartache with an emphatic 52-42 victory.

The Thunderbirds emulated the NSW Swifts and Melbourne Vixens to claim the competition's third crown; the Magic are runners-up for the second time after losing the inaugural final to the NSW Swifts in 2008.

A dominant first quarter for last year's beaten finalists set the tone for the Thunderbirds, who avenged a nine-goal loss the last time the teams met in the final round of the regular season on June 17.

Carla Borrego personified the transformation: the Jamaican international was flummoxed in her first match-up with Magic goal keep Casey Williams, but held her nerve with style today.

The Thunderbirds started tentatively, Borrego and goal attack Erin Bell both missing their first attempts before the star import found her range.

Irene van Dyk, who was near perfection for the Magic in the preliminary final against the NSW Swifts, also had an uncharacteristic early miss when under pressure from player of the match Geva Mentor.

Mentor did not enjoy her last duel with van Dyk in Rotorua but, like Borrego, picked the perfect occasion to make amends.

Borrego was hassled into submission when the teams last met but she addressed the indignity of being subbed in the third quarter of that contest with an unruffled performance that realised 40 goals from 46 attempts.

She was at the forefront of an 8-0 scoring spree midway through the opening quarter that could not be interrupted by an injury time out.

Borrego nailed 13 of her 14 attempts, while van Dyk was critically confined to just four attempts in an opening 15-minute period characterised by the Thunderbirds ability to force the skittery Magic into error.

The Thunderbirds grabbed 10 turnovers and surrendered the ball just once, treasuring possession and finding a route to Borrego often enough to negate Williams.

In contrast, van Dyk was starved of quality ball: the ploy to lob long range passes to her at the post - so effective in the preliminary final against the Swifts - was regularly undermined by goal keep Mentor.

The Thunderbirds led 15-8 at the end of the quarter and were never at risk of squandering that early buffer.

Their advantage ballooned to 11 goals with four minutes 56 seconds remaining in the second quarter, though the Magic did managed to trim the deficit to seven at the main break by stringing together four unanswered goals.

Van Dyk was flawless with a perfect 10-from-10 for the term but the Thunderbirds still had plenty of leeway as Borrego and Bell had the luxury of making a dozen more attempts.

The Magic cut the deficit to six with a strong start to the penultimate quarter but the midcourt of Natalie von Bertouch, Emily Beaton and young player of the year Sharni Layton combined to help ensure the Magic would mount no remarkable comeback.

Van Dyk was again the most accurate shooter on display (30/33) but the veteran and Jodi Brown (12/16) were virtually on starvation rations compared to their counterparts, as Borrego and Bell (12/19) ultimately had 16 more attempts on goal.

- NZPA