The Adelaide Thunderbirds have mixed style with substance to strengthen their grip on Super Netball's minor premiership and end the NSW Swifts' finals dreams.
And the Swifts' 66-60 season-ending loss was further soured when Diamonds invitee and goal attack Grace Whyte picked up an ankle injury at Ken Rosewall Arena on Saturday.
The young gun has been one of the Swifts' best players this season and was rewarded with a call-up to the Diamonds' Commonwealth Games camp last Sunday, but after landing awkwardly on her ankle in the opening quarter, her hopes of representing Australia are in doubt.
"I've checked in, but we don't really know that much" Swifts coach Briony Akle said.
"We'll check that out and get the scans done and see how she is."
NSW needed to beat the ladder leaders to keep their hopes of making the top four afloat, but they already were on the back foot after Diamonds defender Sarah Klau was ruled out late with a leg injury.
A flurry of early errors poured more misery on the home team, and Adelaide punished them even further by creating a commanding 11-goal quarter-time lead, which the Swifts couldn't claw back.
Victory puts the Thunderbirds in the box seat to finish top of the ladder at the end of the regular season. They are currently two wins above the second-placed Melbourne Vixens with a superior goal percentage.
The result means the Vixens must win their last two matches of the season, and hope the Thunderbirds suffer a big loss to the Sunshine Coast Lightning next Saturday to earn a home major semi-final berth.
Adelaide's 100-gamer Georgie Horjus (35 feeds, 20 goal assists) and star defender Latanya Wilson (five gains, four interceptions) were typically inspirational as the visitors picked up their seventh consecutive win.
"Our first quarter was unbelievable. Our statistics were through the roof ... and then it just got a bit scrappy," coach Tania Obst said.
"I'm sure that we'll get some learnings from this game."
The Swifts had a horror start after their early errors were compounded by Whyte leaving the court, and the clinical Thunderbirds conceded just one general-play turnover in the period to open up a 24-13 quarter-time lead.
The teams went tit-for-tat in the second quarter, but Adelaide stepped up after halftime to increase their advantage to 12 goals by the final break.
The Swifts upped the ante in the final quarter, but Thunderbirds goal shooter Elmere van der Berg (51 goals from 56 attempts) kept the scoreboard ticking over to help the visitors emerge victorious.
