The team is to play pre-season matches against the Mainland Tactix at the Edgar Centre both today and tomorrow. Today’s match gets under way at 2pm and the Netball South Beko League team plays the Mainland team straight afterwards at 4pm.
Tomorrow’s match begins at 11am and the Beko League team plays at 2pm.The matches will continue what Steel coach Reinga Bloxham said had been a good pre-season.
"They’re on track with their conditioning and their weights and their fitness is looking really good," she said.
"We’ve just moved into some gameplay, which has been fantastic. So we had some gameplay at the weekend against [the South Beko League team]. [On Wednesday night] we also played Beko in an overloaded game, just applying some different pressure and things to see how they’d go."
The team had welcomed back its Silver Ferns from their early-season tour and they had slotted in seamlessly. The match against the Beko League team in Oamaru was the first with the full team back and Bloxham was happy with how it had gone.
"They left in good condition and they’ve come back in good condition. The other girls have been working extremely hard, so I think everyone is pleased to have our unit back together.
"[It was] really nice to get them out on the court, try some combinations and see how they’re tracking. And just get those connections. A lot of them know each other, which is great, but obviously haven’t played together since last year, so that was good."
She said the team was looking forward to testing itself against another ANZ Premiership side.
"I expect to see a lot of speed and intensity. I’m hoping accuracy, [that] would be quite nice. But I think being pre-season, I’m presuming the Tactix will be trying some new things as well. Just trying to nail down some of their processes, so it could be exciting."
The squad was injury-free, although centre Shannon Francois would be on leave this weekend.
Bloxham hoped to get the rest of the players court time and try some different combinations. The team’s training partner from the Beko League squad, Ngawai Eyles, would be on the Steel bench. She would probably take the court in the Beko League, however, to allow her to build combinations with the players in that team.
With the main arena booked out by a home show, the match will be played on the outside wooden courts. Temporary seating will be put up around the outside.
