The Southern Steel is out of playoff contention but could spoil the New South Wales Swifts' prospects with a win at the Edgar Centre tonight. Netball writer Adrian Seconi looks at what went wrong for the combined Otago-Southland side this season.
The Steel also rushed another former Silver Ferns shooter, Jodi Brown, into the line-up when Hayley Saunders was unavailable for the game in Perth. Brown had given birth to her second child just seven weeks earlier and was not match fit.
The Steel has not passed 40 goals in five of its 11 games. Is it time for a call to last century's star shooter, Joan Harnett?
Shallow talent pool
Coach Robyn Broughton certainly was not tempted to go to the bench if there was still a veteran out there somewhere. Steel back-up shooters Te Paea Selby-Rickit and Sophia Fenwick might be promising but the ANZ Championship is no place for a couple of greenhorns.
The pair should have been honing their skills in the Lois Muir Challenge - the tournament set up as a feeder competition.
And the Steel should have never been in the position of having two development players on the roster, especially in a key position such as shooter.
Casting the net
It is netball 101: shooters win matches. If the coach had her way the franchise would never have let former international goal attack Megan Dehn slip through the net.
The Steel decided it needed to bolster the midcourt and filled its import slot with speedy Australian centre Natasha Chokljat. Broughton's preference was to sign Dehn and then look at midcourt options.
But management gambled on Dehn securing citizenship and lost. It was a tactic which left the Steel without a decent playmaker at the attack end.
Shot down
The scene was set for Wipiiti. This should have been the season when the experienced goal shoot took the competition by the scruff of the neck and cemented her place as the heiress to Irene van Dyk. But with no Dehn or the likes of Donna Wilkins to create play, Wipiiti floundered and so did her new combination with goal attack Paula Griffin, who had transferred south from the Central Pulse.
When all else fails
With playoff hopes fading fast and the connection between Wipiiti and Griffin still not operating smoothly, Broughton made the only move available. She switched the shooters around. Griffin was far more comfortable at goal shoot but Wipiiti was a stagnant goal attack. Still, as a unit, that combination was the better performed. Griffin gained in confidence and has shot nicely in the last two or three weeks. She has forced her way back into the national side at the expense of her team-mate, who played her way out of a Silver Ferns bib.
Walking wounded
The Steel limped into the season with a raft of injury concerns. Chokljat, the Steel's marquee signing, was sidelined for the first four weeks of the tournament with a calf strain. Wipiiti missed the opening game with an ankle complaint. Liana Leota and Leana de Bruin missed the pre-season tournament in Queenstown through injury and Wendy Frew also played a limited part.
ANZ Championship
Steel v Swifts
Venue: Edgar Centre, Dunedin
Time: Tonight, 7.40pm
Record 2010: Sydney, 55-38 Swifts
2009: Invercargill, 55-48 Steel
2008: Sydney, 53-42 Swifts
Teams
Steel: Daneka Wipiiti, Paula Griffin, Liana Leota, Natasha Chokljat, Wendy Frew, Te Huinga Reo Selby-Rickit, Leana de Bruin, Erika Burgess, Sheryl Scanlan, Te Paea Selby-Rickit, Sophia Fenwick, Hayley Saunders.
Swifts: Catherine Cox, Susan Pratley, Vanessa Ware, Kimberlee Green, Kimberley Smith, Mo'onia Gerrard, Sonia Mkoloma, Rebecca Bulley, Courtney Tairi, Ashleigh Brazil, Amorette Wild, Melissa Tallent.
