Amy Carter: Mavericks will have point to prove against Thunder

Manchester Thunder captain Amy Carter believes London Mavericks will have a point to prove in their minor semi-final, after defeating the London club on the final day of the normal season.

Thunder registered a 67-45 victory over Mavericks at OVO Arena Wembley in Round 14 to ensure a home semi-final with a Preliminary Final clash against Loughborough Lightning or London Pulse on the line for the winners.

For third-placed Thunder, it presents the unusual scenario of consecutive matches against their fourth-placed foes in a tactical conundrum for the two sides.

But Carter is expecting a refreshed Mavericks side from the one they beat a 22-goal margin just a week ago.

“It will be a different ball game to the result that we played last week so I think they've got a lot to prove,” she said.

“They'll have learned and they'll have taken notes from that and you can't ever underestimate a team just because you played well against them the previous time.

“They can change things up, they can learn a lot, they can put new combinations out but we've also done our homework so it'll be exciting to see them again.”

For Thunder, who fell to defeat in the Grand Final last year, losing 70-54 to Loughborough Lightning, that homework has provided an opportunity to fine tune a game plan that has already proved successful this season.

The Manchester outfit finished just one point off last year’s champions Lightning with London Pulse five points further clear at the top.

“We're just building it back up and taking bits from here and there and amalgamating it into one game plan that covers everything,” explained Carter.

“Things that might not have worked from our game plan last week we might need to change but things that really worked we might want to do a bit more of.

“This week in training we'll do certain setups to emulate what Mavericks did at the weekend and we'll play our team against that and see what different setups we can do and to come back the best.”

For both sides in the minor semi-final, the season has been far from straightforward.

Mavericks suffered a number of injuries and absences in their attacking third, losing key attackers Paige Reed and Lois Pearson to injury and receiving the happier news of Nat Metcalf’s pregnancy.

It means Reed is still finding her feet on the netball court after returning from injury, but she feels the run of fixtures ahead of a hopeful Grand Final appearance that the minor semi-final provides can work in her favour.

“Coming back after being out for so long, naturally I’m feeling a bit unsettled, a bit nervous,” she admitted. 

“But it helps that I've just been completely surrounded with Manchester Thunder the whole way.

“I feel like my transition has been seamless, but it’s me personally just finding my feet again.

“It's so different running in a straight line than it is to be on court where you've got all these other factors that you've got to think about rather than just running in a straight line.”

And while the minor semi-final will also provide a taste of how knockout netball feels as Thunder hope to progress further, for Reed that is a pressure the four-time winners have put on themselves all season.

“We're in a really good position where we're able to play more games, feel that pressure and understand what it takes to get over that line,” she said.

“We've been doing that all season anyway. We've been putting that on ourselves. We want to win and we want to keep pushing on.

“We've been striving for this the whole time and we've already prepped what the season would look like.”

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