Even after the first three of their four losses, there was no reason to be too concerned, as each of those losses was by three goals or less. The problem after last Saturday’s loss was that the magnitude of it exposed some glaring weaknesses for the defending champions.

One of the biggest concerns was the way they succumbed in the last five minutes of each quarter. Often a weaker team will stay with a stronger team for the first 10 minutes of a quarter, but the last five minutes are generally pretty telling when it comes to sorting out the better side.

On Saturday, the Vixens massively outscored the Thunderbirds in the last five minutes of each term. The Vixens' dominance is obvious when you look at the cumulative scoreline in these crucial periods of the game, the Melbourne team overpowering Adelaide 30-5. It wasn’t so much that the Thunderbirds fell away, it was more that the Vixens stepped up the intensity and the Thunderbirds couldn’t match them.

The problem for the Thunderbirds is that when the Vixens' more experienced players, such as Geva Mentor, Bianca Chatfield and Madi Robinson, upped the ante, they exposed the relative inexperience of some of their opposition.

Adelaide coach Jane Woodlands-Thompson was incredibly upbeat about the younger members of her squad going into this season. After last weekend it seems that while she might have some stars of the future in players such as Maddy Proud and Kate Shimmin, it takes several years for players to get battle hardened to the point where they can dictate terms in that crucial final five minutes of the quarter.