netball
Bailey Mes was not set to play for the Silver Ferns again, but a change of attitude from the veteran shooter led her to regain her mojo and a ticket to the Commonwealth Games. Suzanne McFadden reported.
Meet the new Bailey Knife – the calm, confident, invigorating and contented netball player.
The athletic, versatile shooter who put the pressure and expectation of an often turbulent career behind her and now plays for the love of the game. Who, because of that change in mindset, still plays some of her best netball.
The 2019 World Cup champion who was in tears this week when Lady Noeline Taurua told her she has another chance at the Silver Ferns.
A decade after making her unexpected Silver Ferns debut, Mes did not expect a recall to pull on the black dress. Nor the chance to erase the disturbing memory of the Ferns ‘2018 Commonwealth Games’ downfall.
“I did not think of anything further than tomorrow,” the 33-year-old admits. “It was never in my mind. So there was definitely a lot of emotion. ”
A year ago, Mes was far removed from this new and improved version of herself.
When she returned to the game after a year of recovering from surgery to a serious knee injury, she found herself frustrated at the Mystics. The goal attack after Grace Nweke’s goal shot, her lead role became feeder rather than shooter. She lost all confidence before the hoop.
“It was a real shock last year. It took away the enjoyment factor of my netball, ”admits Mes.
“I barely shot. I lost that rhythm to the point where I did not even feel comfortable going to the post, which of course is your main task as a goal attack. ” In a season of 16 games, she took just 105 shots.
“I loved the Mystics team and finally won the premiership. But it was just a struggle. “
Knife, who is still struggling with her return from a patella cartilage injury, has decided to make herself unavailable for Silver Ferns for the rest of 2021 and the tour to England earlier this year. She remained in the national team, but stressed her priority was “rest and rehabilitation” to prepare for 2022.
Even as the new year dawned, Mes was still unsure if she would play for New Zealand again.
“I was fully aware that it was a possibility,” said the 72-Test veteran. “But I decided to take it all in stride.”
Because Mes needed a new direction in her life, Mes could have walked off the netball court there and then forever. But instead, she chose to buy a home in Papamoa and joined the Magic for the 2022 ANZ Premiership season.
It was there that she found her groove again – and, by her own admission, played some of the best netball of her career.
She certainly did enough to impress Taurua again, as the Silver Ferns coach named Mes this week as one of her four shooters to play at next month’s Commonwealth Games.
She is “super excited” to be back for her second Games, but she still has work to do before focusing only on Birmingham. She works remotely for Sky Sport’s image team, who are obviously excited about her choice.
“But my boss is a little upset. I will not help cover the Comm Games from here,” laughs Mes.
The weight of volume
Taurua has never been afraid of a challenge to come to Netball New Zealand’s rescue after the Ferns finished outside the Commonwealth medals for the first time, on the Gold Coast in 2018. But she describes the composition of these Silver Ferns team as a “complex situation”. Covid, flu, injuries, pregnancies and failed fitness tests all snatched the choices.
When choosing the shooters – Mes, Maia Wilson, Te Paea Selby-Rickit and Nweke – Taurua and her teammates focused on volume.
“When I look at our shooting point, we definitely got altitude to burn,” Taurua says. (Moon, at 1.87 m – or just over six feet high – is the shortest of the quartet.)
“When I look at the big three teams against us [England, Australia and Jamaica] and the players we have, we have a moving circle, we have a holding circle. I would like to think we have smart players out there, ”said Taurua.
“We have variety. Except for Grace, who is a specialist goal shooter, we have players who will increase the shot volume. Volume is really important to us, and you can not shudder to put the shot on. ”
An international goal shooter must score at least 40 shots in a match and her shooting partner about 24 attempts to be competitive, Taurua points out.
“There are areas for improvement in terms of accuracy. But if you have shooters who do not even look at the job, it is really difficult for them mentally to change their habits or their ways, ”says the learned coach.
“I feel these four shooters are the highest volume shooters we have in New Zealand, plus the adaptability to play a different style of play.”
Month definitely provided for herself in that department during this ANZ Premiership season. She increased her shooting volume fourfold compared to the previous year – she sank 330 shots from 428 attempts (at 77 percent accuracy).
Although she moved around the shooting range and often changed roles with her partner Ameliaranne Ekenasio, Mes can be considered the most fruitful goal attack in this year’s league.
(Oversight goalie Aliyah Dunn, by the way, had the highest volume with 664 shots to goal, with a 93 percent success rate. She has now switched codes to basketball and played for the Tokomanawa Queens in the new Tauihi Basketball Aotearoa League).
Wear the gloves
So what has changed in Month’s game? How did she elevate herself again to possibly be one of the best shooters in the world?
Well, the nearly 10-month break she took away from court was the starting point, she says.
“I definitely think it helped. When I walked away from the Ferns, I knew I was nowhere near able to put out what I would need internationally. I could barely get through the ANZ season, ”says Ms.
“Then it was great for me to be in lockdown and have more of a forced rest. And to improvise training – I ended up doing loads of different things for fun and with my roommates – took my mind off netball. “
She started boxing (“You probably would not choose it if you looked at me; it did not change much,” she laughs), and circling on the back deck.
When she saw the Ferns playing, she felt a pain of envy. “But I knew I was not in the right room to be there.”
Joining the Magic did not come without challenges. Covid’s illness and injuries constantly changed the face of the team, and they were well into the season before finally setting up their original team.
“Sometimes we felt like we were throwing everything at ourselves… which made it almost a little easier to be like, ‘We just have to play netball now; there is nothing more we can do ‘, ”says Mes. “It was literally about getting out there and appreciating that we could still play.
“And I was just more relaxed and thought about enjoying it. To be somewhere else and refresh it a bit. ”
However, the “real biggie” for her was to reclaim her shooting mojo. She gives recognition to Magic’s head coach, Mary-Jane Araroa, for giving her shooting license to go to the post whenever they were in the shooting range.
And Mes enjoyed the chance to work with former Silver Fern captain Ekenasio, who found her return to play after the birth of her second child “very challenging”. It was no big shock when she did not make the Silver Ferns 12, but as a reserve for the Commonwealth Games she can be called in if Nweke does not fully recover from her ankle injury.
“Meals are amazing,” Mes says. “By the end of the season we got more of a rhythm in our combination. We could get confused between goal shooting and goal attack, so the defenders had to readjust. Hopefully we can play together again next season. ”
Knife’s ability to play strong in any of the shooting roles helped her Ferns’ return. She does not care what bib she wears: “I’m not sure I have a preference; it is good to keep up with both skills. ”
Delete memories of 2018
With her new mindset, Mes does not see these Commonwealth Games as an opportunity to rectify the injustices of 2018, when an unfortunate, incoherent Ferns team finished fourth (after a dazzling record of two golds and three silvers at previous Games ). She struggled on the Gold Coast, with her inconsistent shooting coming off the bank.
“It definitely took a while to recover from that experience,” she says. “I was quite grateful to have the opportunity to play for the Ferns again afterwards.
“But I did not think ‘Right I have to go to another Games and fix it’. I was a lot like ‘If it happens, it’s great’. So it is very exciting to go again. ”
Knife’s very first selection for the Silver Ferns in 2012 was out of the blue. She only played a quarter of an hour in the ANZ championship for the Mystics when New Zealand coach Wai Taumaunu selected her after she stood out in a trial for her athletics and speed (Taurua, by the way, was assistant coach ).
She did not make an impression on wing attack in her first international matches, but her perseverance and her reinvention since then has been admirable.
Month reflects the past decade. “I am still the same person. But I definitely learned a lot, ”she says. “And I think my reasons and my attitude are the biggest things that have changed.
“I do not know how long I will keep playing, so I just want to enjoy it while I can.”