The Queensland Firebirds came out firing in today’s Indigenous round, wearing their pride on their dresses and their sleeves too but were unlucky to not bring home the win, going down: 64-66.
The Queensland side’s blistering start saw them pull out to a solid 8-point lead in the first quarter. The Vixens wrestled the lead back to two points courtesy of the Suncorp Super Shot in the second quarter with the Firebirds in front by 2 at half time (37-35).
On a mission to reclaim space on the court, the Firebirds secured the first two turnovers and impressed with their full court defence in the third quarter. The depth of the side is evident with centre court, circle and defence players rotating without missing a beat throughout the game.
The Firebirds were in front by 3 with 3 minutes to go courtesy of a sensational turnover by Kim Jenner and team threw everything at it the game, as did the crowd. A penalty on the buzzer gave the Vixens the win.
Indigenous Firebird, Jemma Mi Mi said it was surreal to be out on court today and found balancing this week easier with family support and by focusing on being a role model for younger players.
“I just love playing at home – for it to be Indigenous round, to have my family up in the stands and to see all the girls wear the dress so proudly and, really embrace this round and our coaches too. It felt amazing, she said.”
“My family have been checking on me this week and my focus on being a role model has helped balance the media side too. This week, the crowd were incredible, they really rode the game with us.”
Firebird’s captain, Gabi Simpson echoed Jemma’s sentiment about the crowd support and said she was proud of the way the team played the defining moments.
“One of the biggest things we’ve been talking about is playing the moments. In the last two minutes we really played the moments defensively – that was all throughout the court – all the way from Romelda in shooter to Rudi in goal keeper. So, that’s exciting and a really good step forward”, Simpson said.
“I think it’s our understanding of the clock when we can’t talk to each other too. The crowd were just incredible, that’s the loudest I’ve heard it in here. The crowd were so impressive, it was sometimes hard to communicate on court.”
Head Coach Megan Anderson was pleased with the way the team was steady in attack and let the ball go but was keen to see the team make the most of the turnover opportunities.
“We were steady in attack and things worked well when we had multiple options and let the ball go. There were just a few moments in the game where we need to recognise it’s important, take a breath, reset it and go again”, Anderson said.
“We’re having real trouble converting on our turnovers and it’s something that’s been a bit of a trend this season. When you keep giving the ball back to them after you turn it over it’s just giving them more and more opportunities.”
“We’ll continue to take it game by game and make sure we fix up the things we can fix up and control what we can control. We’ll do our best there and see what happens next week.”
The Firebirds next match is an away game against the Sunshine Coast Lightning at 3pm on Sunday, June 6 on the Sunshine Coast.