Ravaillion declares she's fit to go for Grand Final
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MISSION Queensland Firebirds young gun Kim Ravaillion has declared a sore knee won’t stop her from taking to the court in next Sunday’s ANZ Championship Grand Final against the Adelaide Thunderbirds.
Ravaillion sent a scare through the Firebirds camp when she crashed to the floor in the third term of their Preliminary Final win over the Melbourne Vixens clutching her left knee.
Replays showed the knee buckled when she landed on her leg awkwardly. But after receiving treatment on court by Firebirds physio Mark Stokes, she got up and played out the match.
After their gutsy 50-46 win, which booked their spot in the season decider in Adelaide, Ravaillion had the knee iced and admitted she feared the worst when she went down.
“It was scary. I felt like it was an elastic band (stretching) and I just fell on the floor and obviously I was in shock,” Ravaillion.
“Mark calmed me down so it’s good. It’s ready to go.
“There’s only one more game to go. I’m not going to sit on the bench for that.”
Firebirds coach Roselee Jencke said they would get her knee scanned today to see if any she’s suffered any damage but didn’t expect the 19-year-old to miss the biggest game of the season.
“We’ll patch her up and tape it (knee) up and she’ll be out there next week,” Jencke declared.
Firebirds vice-captain Natalie Medhurst said she cringed when she saw the replay of the incident on the big screens of Melbourne’s State Netball Hockey Centre.
Medhurst was even more amazed that Ravaillion never went off having feared she’d done serious damage to her knee.
“She’s incredibly tough,” Medhurst said of Ravaillion.
“All year those young girls have come out and had absolutely no fear and gone in guns blazing and stepped up week in, week out.”
The Thunderbirds face the Firebirds in the 2013 ANZ Championship Grand Final at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre on Sunday, July 14 at 2.08pm, local time.
