After Round 13, the battle for the minor premiership could not be tighter – with the top three teams locked on 40 points.

The Adelaide Thunderbirds continued their dominance against the NSW Swifts, 60-48, to record a fifth-straight victory and jump into the number-one spot.

The Melbourne Vixens slipped from first to second, after a loss to the West Coast Fever, 68-67, while the Sunshine Coast Lightning managed to hold onto fourth place with a win against the Firebirds in the Queensland derby, 83-67.

But the match that had everyone's tongues wagging was the last-minute thriller between the Melbourne Mavericks and Giants, that saw the Mavericks keep their finals dreams alive in a physical contest, 55-54, as bodies crashed all over the court.

If you missed it, don't worry — we'll get you up to speed with our Super Netball Round-Up.

Thunderbirds likely to win minor premiership

Champion Data believes the new ladder leaders have a 69 per cent chance of winning the minor premiership — and for good reason.

Their strong for and against tally pretty much means they're guaranteed to hold onto that spot. That is, unless they drop their final game.

Adelaide has scored less than anyone else in the top four but because they've also conceded the least number of goals, they've managed to pull off the greatest differential percentage.

Should they win their final match against the Lightning, it then feels impossible the Vixens or Fever would catch them. As they'd need to win by 60-plus goals.

Should the Thunderbirds lose, it'll be a very close race between Vixens and Fever, where 12 is the magic number.

According to Champion Data, for the Fever to overtake, they need to win by 12 goals more than the Vixens. Should they lose, they'd need the Vixens to lose by 12 more than their losing margin.

The race is just as tight for fourth place, where the Lightning and Mavericks are tied on 24 points, fighting for the last spot in the finals.

The Mavericks have conceded more goals than they've scored this year, so their percentage puts them in a precarious position, relying on a Lightning loss and a win themselves to progress.

What's really exciting for the league, is that it'll all depend on that final game on Sunday afternoon in Round 14 as the Thunderbirds host the Lightning. You'd have to expect another sell-out at Adelaide Entertainment Centre and a spark in TV viewership given what's on the line.

Emotions get the better of the Firebirds

The Firebirds have been under extreme pressure this year: struggling to find form, losing their head coach mid-season, and then her assistant days later.

It's been an emotional ride, and the players deserve kudos for the way they've banded together.

Their bond was more important this week than ever, after Donnell Wallam received an offensive letter and posted a photo of it on social media.

Netball Australia and Netball Queensland condemned the "disgusting racial abuse" and although the sport did its best to wrap its arms around Wallam, the toll of the week was evident.

During the pre-game Welcome to Country and an Indigenous rendition of My Island Home, Wallam was hugged by her teammates as tears rolled down her face.

Many fans cried with her, knowing this woman is one of the best goal shooters in the world and yet she has unfairly put up with more than most could bear to play the game she loves.

As the Firebirds took the court, their emotions ran high and the team struggled to convert their centre passes (68 per cent), their gains (50 per cent) and their attempts at goal (73 per cent).

Wallam didn't play last week due to illness, so her training would have also been limited. But with that loss, the Firebirds were officially ruled out of finals.

Despite their challenges this year, loyal fans have continued to back them. A record 4,788 people turned up to cheer them on, marking their biggest crowd yet at the Queensland State Netball Centre.

It may not have been the team's night, but interim co-coach Katie Walker said she had enjoyed every minute of her new role since Bec Bulley and Lauren Brown left.

"My heart is broken right now for us and for the players because I know how much that loss hurts, but that's what brings teams together and we will come back stronger," Walker said.

In the coming weeks, the Firebirds will announce their head coach for 2025 and considering the incredible belief Walker has instilled in the group over just three rounds, she has to be one of the frontrunners for the gig.

There is also a press conference being held Tuesday at Firebirds HQ, where the club says it will make a significant player announcement. Considering the contracting window hasn't opened yet, all signs point to a potential retirement.

Officiating in the spotlight

As we creep towards the end of the season, there have been grumbles about the umpiring. Inconsistency for held balls, footwork calls where there is no stepping, and interference with the post left uncalled.

All of these seem fairly minor, but with finals on the line, everything is a little more intense and things are getting missed in the heat of the moment.

The collision in the last minute of the Giants and Mavericks game was the worst example yet.

With 52 seconds on the clock, Mavericks defender Kim Jenner chased the ball down like her life depended on it, as Giants midcourter Amy Sligar stood on the transverse line.

Both players were desperate to keep their seasons alive and were going hell for leather throwing their bodies into the contest, with the score locked at 54-all.

Eyes on the ball, they clashed mid-air so hard that they fell over the sideline.

But as they slowly picked themselves up off the wooden floor, it was like it never happened.

Time was not held, no immediate welfare check was done. The umpires allowed play to roll on and skipped over their bodies to keep an eye on the game.

The Mavericks made it up their end of the court and converted to take the lead, while Jenner and Sligar scurried to catch up to the contest.

Following the goal, Sligar called injury time and slowly trudged off holding her wrist, keeling over as she reached the bench.

The Mavericks played a possession game off that next centre, passing it around as the seconds wound down to secure the win.

Jenner appeared unfazed by the collision, and played on, before being awarded player of the match for her hard work at the back.

But the officiating has been widely criticised. Giants head coach Julie Fitzgerald was among those vocal about her thoughts.

"It doesn't look good, it was a big collision," Fitzgerald said.

"It did seem strange that it was play on, we had two players lying on the ground."

Sligar was cleared of any serious injury on Monday. Scans confirmed she had suffered bone bruising, so would need to pass testing to be available for Round 14.

For what it's worth, the league says it's comfortable with the way the situation was handled, deeming it simply as two players going for the ball.

Head injury assessments were done on both players after the match and there was no concussion diagnosis or symptoms reported.

We had anticipated this contest was going to get pretty physical, as both teams possess strong players that like to play a hard one-on-one style of defence.

There were several other instances throughout the match where players bodychecked each other. Such as Eleanor Cardwell's bump on Sligar, Jamie-Lee Price's on Amy Parmenter, and Kristiana Manu'a's on Matisse Letherbarrow.

Overall, 124 penalties were called at a 64-60 split, demonstrating how evenly both teams were vying in the contest. Sligar led the Giants penalty count with 14. Jenner led the Mavericks on 15.

Sometimes the players need to learn when it's best to pull out – which is the whole point of the updates to World Netball's dangerous play rule.

And sometimes, the umpires need to assert themselves better and take control of the game before it reaches this point.

From our point of view, at bare minimum, it really did feel like time should have been held with Jenner and Sligar on the ground. At least to double check their welfare, there and then.

If we go one step further, Sligar came from a different third of the court into an offside position, taking out Jenner's landing space. In any other league, it's likely this would have at least warranted a suspension.

Mavs absent for smoking ceremony

Given how important First Nations Round is on the Super Netball calendar, and the sport's desire to better acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture, it was disappointing to see the Mavericks miss the smoking ceremony held by local elders on behalf of the Giants pre-game.

First reported by Kate Allman at NewsCorp, the team was a no-show, despite the ceremony being held 90 minutes before the first whistle.

"We apologise for that, we didn't want to disrespect it in any way, we just found out quite late and hoped to be able to change the time," head coach Travey Neville said.

"Our warm-up and pre-game time is really important, we have a lot of people in our team that need strapping and treatment."

But ABC Sport has since confirmed that the Giants sent their game-day schedule – approved by the league – to their opponents early in the week.

As the game grew closer, that's when the Mavericks raised an issue, hoping for it to be moved at least 100 minutes beforehand, which didn't suit the organisers.

The Giants knew the Mavericks would therefore not be attending the ceremony days ahead of time. It wasn't a last-minute decision and there were Giants players that needed to be strapped up too, that were still able to make the effort to attend.

After speaking with some of the Mavericks players, who say they had no idea it was even taking place, we wonder … who made this call on their behalf?

There hasn't ever been an issue for travelling teams to show at the smoking ceremonies of the Swifts or Giants in Sydney before, so why are the Mavericks special in this regard?