Thwaites eyes grand final redemption

The Swifts have never beaten opponent the Queensland Firebirds in a final, including last year’s thrilling 57-56 ANZ Championship grand final.

The Firebirds have an average winning margin of 7.2 over the Swifts and handed them an 11-goal thumping in their most recent encounter a fortnight ago.

“We set ourselves all year to put ourselves in the position to play in the grand final,’’ Thwaites said on Friday.

“We can’t wait to give it another crack. We’ve learnt from past performances (against the Firebirds).

“We’ll be trying to take some things from those losses into Sunday’s game, but at the same time we’re not focusing on them (Firebirds) too much.

“We need to focus on the way we want to perform. If we put out the things we’ve been working on in the past couple of weeks we should be right in the game.”

Thwaites has been the catalyst of the Swifts having a league-high accuracy rate of 87.7 per cent this season.

The Australian Diamonds goal shooter needs just three goals on Sunday to equal her best individual haul of 507 goals for the ANZ Championship season.

“I think I haven’t been as consistent this year as I have in the past,’’ Thwaites said.

“I’ve had some big games, but I’ve also had some poor games. I’m hoping for some consistency in my performance on Sunday.”

Thwaites will go head-to-head Firebirds skipper Laura Geitz. The pair are good friends, having played international netball together with the Diamonds.

“We’ll acknowledge each other before the game, but once that first whistle goes we both get white line fever,’’ Thwaites said.

“We have great respect for each other, but the game is business as usual.

“After that game we’ll hug each other and everything will be back to normal.”

Sunday’s game is the last ANZ Championship grand final. A new eight-team competition will start next season. Thwaites is out of contract with the Swifts.