netball
Are the Silver Ferns ready for a battle of wits and stamina at next week’s Commonwealth Games? In the first of a two-part series, Suzanne McFadden listens to their miracle worker coach and takes stock after a heart-pounding pre-Games hit-out.
Well after the Silver Ferns were finally defeated by the New Zealand men for the second time in a week, the far from disheartened netballers stood in a circle with their male counterparts in an otherwise empty Pulman Arena.
Towering male shooter Jay Geldard, who had inflicted great pain on the Silver Ferns defense for the past week, stood at his feet with a basket of purple t-shirts. Injured Ferns defender Karin Burger had chosen the color, he joked.
“We want to bring you this t-shirt that says ‘Valuable,'” Geldard told the Silver Ferns.
“It makes for two conversations. The first thing to ask yourself is: Do I value myself? Can I wear this t-shirt? Do I believe in it?
“The second thing that comes to mind is, ‘What will other people think of me if I wear this?’ And we need to change that in New Zealand. You can wear this with pride, knowing that you are valuable, and the people around you are valuable too.”
It’s a message the Silver Ferns need to hear now with the Commonwealth Games in just 10 days.
Dame Noeline Taurua, in turn, told the men’s team how valuable they had been, pushing the Ferns to their limits in their final preparation for Birmingham on this side of the world.
“We can only thank you from the bottom of our hearts,” said the Silver Ferns head coach. “We’ll wear you on our sleeve.”
It was no doubt four precious days for the Silver Ferns, meeting teams that replicated the styles of some of those they’ll encounter in Birmingham, and showing coaches Taurua and Deb Fuller where they stand.
Taurua cleverly picked her opponents for this dress rehearsal – a New Zealand A-team packed with players with a point to prove, and the Mixed Invitational side led by the wise head of three-time Commonwealth Games medalist Leana de Bruin and Australian midfielders Kelsey Browne and Laura Scherian only imported for a week.
In the end, the physique and speed of the New Zealand men proved just too much for the Silver Ferns, especially in the first half of Saturday’s final when the men went into a shootout and led 40-21 at halftime.
Taurua was happier with the second half, which the Ferns were able to sign – but she wasn’t sure if that was an improvement on Ferns or if the men changed line-up, which included retiring Geldard (who had sunk 37 from 38) to the couch.
But the men’s coach, Dion Te Whetu, saw value for the Ferns in their record 19-goal win. “I think, without sounding magnanimous, we probably helped by exposing a few things at the end of their attack and hopefully that’s something they can take away,” he says.
And he wondered if maybe Taurua and Fuller were holding something back: “Have they played all their cards? Did they show us everything? Maybe not, there are some clever operators out there.”
Remember it was Taurua’s brilliant idea to play the men – for the first time in public and on prime time TV – in 2019 before the Silver Ferns left for Liverpool and the World Cup. The women also lost both matches with the men in that series, but the results were not very good. It was the physically arduous, uncompromising nature of those encounters that Taurus took credit for helping them win the silverware for the first time in 16 years.
It’s a very different team than three years ago. With retirements, injuries and motherhood, only five of them are on their way to Birmingham – and captain Gina Crampton is the sole survivor of the seven who took court in the World Cup final.
Although the current Ferns showed signs of wilting after four tough games in a row last week (corresponding to the last four days of the Commonwealth Games programme), Taurua promised not to push them too hard. They are still loading, she says.
In fact, they’re where they want them to be – and according to the data they’re collecting, the Ferns are actually ahead of where they were and at the same time leading them to their 2019 World Cup victory (remember they just came off a dismal fourth at the Gold). Coast Commonwealth Games).
‘I don’t have any problems with it,’ says Taurua. “I support the squads, I support the people on the team and I’m very excited. I feel like if we can just keep chugging along and be better than we were yesterday, I really feel like we’re showing a glimpse of that. The data is enough evidence for me to show that we are on the right track, so we just have to keep the faith, keep faith and keep working hard.”
Maybe they should also print t-shirts with the slogan: “In Noels we trust”. Sentiment was all around the stadium in Papakura last week – confidence in Taurua’s miracle work to come forward again.
Take it from Silver Ferns captain Gina Crampton, the players also rely on Dame Noels. “I think the huge improvement we’ve had over the past few weeks is definitely a confidence booster, and obviously we have full confidence in what Noels is giving us,” said Crampton.
“If she feels confident, then we feel confident too.”
There were revelations in their two wins and two defeats.
– Whitney Souness plays in the middle, for the first time since her school days, and immediately linked to Crampton on the wing.
– The bravery of young midcourt Kate Heffernan, especially on wing defence. She has yet to earn an international cap, but last week’s experience has primed her to impress with her long levers that disrupt the game.
– Experienced goal shooter Maia Wilson plays a full 60 minutes in the black dress on goal attack for the first time. It means she can combine with 20-year-old Grace Nweke in shooting to become Ferns’ number 1 shooting combo right now. Wilson’s eye was on long range shots (adding 22 from 25 attempts against the Mixed Invitational side), and with all the defensive efforts focused on Nweke, she took advantage of the space to move in the circle.
But it also highlighted a concern. While Wilson has looked sharp at the attack on goal in the last two games, that is not her strong point. And both the bib backups, Bailey Mes (shooting at 60 percent) and Te Paea Selby-Rickit (74 percent), suffered from the yips under the hoop throughout the series.
At the same time, former Silver Ferns captain Ameliaranne Ekenasio, who was not fit enough for Birmingham on her return after having her second child, was in fine shooting form for NZ A, her accuracy in the ’80s and ’90s.
And the target defense bib is still up for grabs. Sulu Fitzpatrick played much of the series there and Phoenix Karaka came into her own in the final against the NZ Men.
There is still time to smooth out any minor creases. The Silver Ferns fly out on Thursday for a final five-day training camp in Colchester, which includes double days of training and a game against the London Pulse.
“That’s a new phase for us to really pull apart the areas that worked and didn’t work well during this series,” Taurus says. “The areas where we were exposed and then see what we can do to fix that. So there’s still a little bit to go.”
While the Silver Ferns were the big winners of the series, in terms of an unparalleled internal build, the other three teams took a lot away from it as well. The NZ Men rose to prominence for their exciting, skillful play, on the eve of their own international series; players in NZ A got a chance to prove the Silver Ferns selectors wrong; while the Mixed Invitational gave us a glimpse of what the future might hold – the shape netball could take when it finally breaks through into the highest sporting realm, the Olympics.
It was a win-win for everyone. At least, we’ll find out in the coming weeks whether that’s the case for the netball world champions.
* Tomorrow: LockerRoom talks to four legends of the game who discovered firsthand how the Silver Ferns take shape.