Super Netball: Melbourne Vixens beat West Coast Fever win to seal top spot

Melbourne Vixens have claimed the inaugural Super Netball minor premiership with a 68-42 thrashing of West Coast Fever at Perth Arena.

With Sunshine Coast Lightning putting the pressure on earlier Saturday night by beating Giants Netball, the Vixens had to win to guarantee top spot and a home major semi-final.

The victory over the lowly Fever was never in doubt.

Melbourne raced to the six-one lead early and ended up winning by 26 goals, having led by as many as 27 during the fourth quarter.

It was a good tune up for the finals for the Vixens with a dominant showing all over the court.

Mwai Kumwenda was unstoppable in the circle hitting 37 from 39 attempts for Melbourne. Tegan Philip added 31 from 35 attempts.

It was much tougher going in attack for the Fever.

Nat Medhurst missed four shots and had four turnovers before sitting out the third quarter and finishing as wing attack.

Kaylia Stanton had some good moments shooting 34 from 39 attempts.

While the Vixens are looking ahead, the season is over for the Fever having won just twice from 14 games, to only finish ahead of the Adelaide Thunderbirds.

Vixens coach Simone McKinnis was delighted to have secured top spot and finish the game in such dominant fashion.

"I arrived at the game and realised that what happened in that (Lightning v Giants) game wasn't relevant," McKinnis said.

"We just had to win this game so that's what we were thinking about.

"I was happy with a lot about that and we finished really strongly.

"Eventually it opened up for us so I certainly liked the way we finished."

Fever coach Stacey Marinkovich hopes her team learns from the tough lessons the Vixens handed out.

"I thought we had been training well but you can see why Vixens are top of the table," Marinkovich said.

"They are very well in tune with how they move on the court, their ball movement is slick and we forced ourselves into error just by placement of pass.

"They punish you but we let ourselves down with execution as well.

"It feels pretty crap right at this particular moment and it leaves a sour taste in your mouth but at the same time it could energise you to make sure it never happens again."

The Vixens victory guaranteed home-court advantage in next Saturday afternoon's major semi-final against the Lightning in Melbourne, with a grand final berth and hosting rights at stake.

The minor semi-final sees the Giants host the Collingwood Magpies in Sydney on Saturday night.

The winner of that elimination final will play the loser of the Vixens-Lightning clash in the preliminary final on Saturday 10 June.

The grand final will be played on Saturday 17 June.