The West Coast Fever is an Australian netball team based in Perth which competes in the Suncorp Super Netball league. The team previously competed in the trans-Tasman ANZ Championship. The franchise was one of the foundation teams of the Commonwealth Bank Trophy, formerly the premier domestic league in Australia. They contested every year of the tournament, from 1997–2007, as the Perth Orioles. When the Commonwealth Bank Trophy was retired after 2007, the Orioles were one of five Australian franchises included in the new ANZ Championship. The team was rebranded before the start of the new league's inaugural season, becoming the "West Coast Fever". The Fever play home games at the RAC Arena, having ceased sharing home games with HBF Stadium in 2018. The team uniform is primarily black with green and red. The Fever have historically been one of the lower-ranked teams in the domestic competition. They have featured in one Grand Final, losing that match to Sunshine Coast Lightning in 2018.
History
Perth Orioles
The Perth Orioles were one of the founding teams of the Commonwealth Bank Trophy, and Western Australia's only team in the national competition. The Orioles were coached by Sue Gaudion and captained by Stacey Rosman. The team colours were lime green, black and orange. Despite being one of the Commonwealth Bank Trophy's founding clubs, the Orioles perennially struggled in the competition. They never finished higher than sixth in the competition's 11 seasons and finished last four times. The team was nearly axed in 2001 when the decision was made to add the AIS Canberra Darters, but survived after an outcry from the state netball community, with the Adelaide Ravens being cut instead. 2006 was another middling year for the Perth girls. They had a great start to the season, unveiling new star shooter Caitlin Bassett to replace players that departed for the Australian Institute of Sport. Part way through the season a horrible injury to Jessica Shynn put her in the operating room, and Bassett lost her confidence and composure, seeing an important drop in accuracy. After looking like making the finals, they finished sixth.
West Coast Fever
The ANZ Championship was founded in 2007 as the new elite domestic netball competition in Australia and New Zealand. It replaced the Commonwealth Bank Trophy in Australia and the National Bank Cup in New Zealand, which both played their final season in 2007. When the new trans-Tasman competition was announced, the competition was reported to feature five teams from each country. For the new competition, five Australian franchises were formed from amalgamations of Commonwealth Bank Trophy teams, which would contest the inaugural competition in 2008. The deadline for expressions of interests for Australian franchises was 10 April 2007. In March 2007, Netball Australia chief executive Kate Palmer said that the preferred model was for one team each from New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Queensland and Western Australia. In April this was confirmed as the composition of the league's Australian teams, with the announcement of the franchises on 10 May. After conducting market research, Netball WA decided to rebrand the club, changing the team's name, logo and colours. On 8 November, Netball WA CEO Lisa Braddock announced information about the new club, which had been renamed as the "West Coast Fever", with a new logo and franchise colours. Sue Gaudion was retained as coach, and the squad for the inaugural season included two English players. However, the 2008 season saw the Fever win only one game in the round-robin stage, with a draw against the Central Pulse. After the 2008 season, Sue Gaudion was replaced by Jane Searle as head coach. At the end of the 2014, Norma Plummer was replaced as coach by former Fever captain Stacey Marinkovich. In 2015, Fever went undefeated for the first nine rounds, and made the finals for the first time. They lost to the NSW Swifts in the Elimination Final in Sydney. Courtney Bruce was appointed captain of the team ahead of the 2018 season. The season proved to be the best in the club's history, as Jamaican importJhaniele Fowler scored a record number of goals to help the team finish the regular season in second place. The Fever won their first final in club history, defeating the Giants in Sydney to qualify for a home Grand Final. In that Final, the Fever lost by 3 goals to Sunshine Coast Lightning before a record domestic league crowd of 13,722 at Perth Arena.
Captains
The following is a list of Perth Orioles/West Coast Fever captains:
The West Coast Fever are the rebranded Perth Orioles team from the Commonwealth Bank Trophy. The renaming of the club was an endeavour to become "truly a West Australian club, moving away from the 'Perth' designation". The Fever also have a new logo, comprising black, red and green. "The colour black represents the sharpness and strength of West Coast Fever, red denotes the fire and passion West Coast Fever embodies, and green reflects the dynamic youthfulness of our female athletes." The Fever also maintain the Orioles' partnership with Australian Football League club the West Coast Eagles.
Venues
The Fever played home matches at the 4,500 capacity Perth Superdrome since its inception through to 2017. In 2013 the club began playing some matches at the newly constructed 13,500 capacity Perth Arena, known commercially as RAC Arena. In 2018 the club ceased splitting matches between the two venues and elected to play all matches at Perth Arena.
Western Sting
The Western Sting are Western Australia's representative side in the second-tier Australian Netball League and they have been in a formal alignment with the Fever since 2016. The team is made up of a mixture of West Coast Fever training partner players and talented players from Western Australia, providing a pathway for emerging players into the National Netball League. Recent examples of this pathway are Sophie Garbin, who broke the ANL record for goals scored in 2017 before being picked up by the New South Wales Swifts the following season; and Olivia Lewis who was recruited by West Coast Fever for the 2019 season. The Sting have recorded one premiership in their time in the competition, defeating the Victorian Fury in the 2017 Grand Final.
