Superleague is back on Sky Sports Mix screens on Saturday when Surrey Storm and Loughborough Lightning go head to head from 5.45pm
Wednesday 20 February 2019 10:04, UK
Lightning finally strikes, injuries taking their toll and fourth place up for grabs - Tamsin Greenway picks out her talking points from Round Six in the Vitality Superleague.
What a week! Wasps did not slip up so they stay perfect and there is plenty to talk about from some big games.
I have mentioned before that Loughborough have not been far away, they should not have lost by as many as they did against Bath but they finally got it right to beat Thunder.
It was a really attacking game, as a 65-60 scoreline shows but Thunder losing their 100 per cent start shows just how competitive the league is.
Thunder, will feel they missed Kerry Almond, I don't know if she was injured or ill, but once again the third quarter proved crucial - they went into half-time up by two but they made a couple of changes and Lightning didn't and that seemed to shift the momentum.
Ellie Cardwell came into GA, Laura Malcolm came on at WD and Amy Carter went inside, they meant (Kathryn) Turner and (Caroline) O'Hanlon went to the bench and they are key players for how Thunder play.
Lightning, kept their seven throughout the game in and came out in that third quarter and won it by five. They have been playing around with their starting seven all season and they may now have found something stronger
That's is not always playing in their most natural positions as Nat Panagarry went to WD and Jess Shaw moved into the middle - that's something for coaches to play around with and learn, how to get your best players on the court even if it's not their best positions.
We have talked this season about the teams battling to be the in the top four having a bench - and of all those teams Bath have probably got the weakest in terms of experience and exposure.
However, you cannot account for losing not just two key players but two of the best players in the world which is what Eboni Usoro-Brown and Serena Guthrie are.
That is huge, no one in the top four would survive a game against another team up there having lost their best two players - take Rachel Dunn out of Wasps and you have a bench but you have got no other Rachel Dunn.
Injuries are going to play their part and maybe Bath got off lightly with it happening against Mavericks. When you play another team in the top four it's not too bad if you lose but it does become a problem if you start slipping up against Dragons or Pulse who may not be in that mix.
Mavs were clinical and we are seeing consistency from them but while I expected Bath to lose but not take a pasting.
It depends on just how long Serena and Eboni may be out for but I think we could see a change in the top four and that could it up over the season.
With two new directors of netball it might be that Storm and Lightning are well placed to take advantage. The two franchises have taken things differently with Sara Bayman coming in to a completely new team and Mikki has been part of that Storm group for a while and didn't play a whole lot last year.
The transition for Mikki has been quite good because she has know the players and what she wants from them and they are now playing quite well
If they keep plugging away and getting a scalp, as Storm did with Bath and Lightning this week with Thunder they could be in a position to move up - it sets up the game nicely this weekend as they play each other.
Watch more Vitality Netball Superleague action when Surrey Storm take on Loughborough Lightning on Saturday, February 23, live on Sky Sports Mix from 5.45pm. Also, Sky Sports will be showing every game of the 2019 Vitality Netball World Cup in July.
