A new era of netball exploded into life when the Otago Rebels beat the Southern Sting in the first national league final in May 1998. Hayden Meikle was there, and this was the report he filed.
Weeding the garden of her Oamaru home provided Georgie Salter with some quiet time to reflect yesterday.
Salter's Otago Rebels were crowned national netball league champions after beating Southern Sting 57-50 at the Edgar Centre, Dunedin, on Saturday night.
After escorting her players around the town in post-match celebrations, it was time for the coach to look back on the match which concluded a highly-successful, unbeaten season for the Otago team.
"All week, everybody had told us we needed to get off to a good start. We had our game plan worked out; we wanted to hit that first quarter really hard," Salter said.
"We took control early and readied ourselves for the big push. That was a great first quarter from us but then we had a few lapses and had to regather control.
"Fortunately, we always had a decent buffer to see us through."
The Rebels leapt to a 12-4 lead but quickly squandered it and at the quarter mark were only 13-12 ahead.
That set up a second quarter in which Otago strung together some sublime passages of play, outscoring the Sting 21-10 to lead 34-22 half-time.
Southern won the third quarter by one goal and trailed 38-49 at the three-quarter mark.
With five minutes to play, Otago led by nine and had to survive a few anxious moments as Southern went down fighting, scoring four unanswered goals.
However, it was too late and Jo Steed netted two goals in the last minute to secure a deserved win.
Otago stuck with its semifinal match-winning line-up of Katie Fay and Belinda Blair on defence, Vicki Edward, Lesley Nicol and Anna Rowberry through the mid-court and Belinda Colling and Steed in the shooting circle.
Southern started with shooters Donna Loffhagen and Debbie Munro, Kirsty Broughton, Tasha Marshall and Reinga Bloxham in the mid-court and Bernice Mene and Michelle Krynen on defence.
The substitution of Camille Grubb for Broughton in the last quarter injected some much-needed cohesion into the Sting mid-court, which had struggled against the Rebels' established line-up.
Steed netted an impressive 47 goals from 56 attempts, continuing to average more than 80% for the season, while the defensive combination of Fay and Blair was too strong for the Sting.
Fay's duel with Silver Fern shooter Loffhagen was a highlight of the match, with the 1.89m defender surprisingly getting a warning for over-physical play from umpire Joan Hodson in the third quarter.
Edward and Rowberry ensured turnover ball reached the shooters as quickly as possible, while Nicol was outstanding in all facets of the game.
"When Southern caught up in the first quarter, that set it up for a really good fight," Salter said.
"We put in a really intense 15 minutes in the second and we had them on the rack. They looked a bit tired; there were a few grimaces from them in the third quarter."
Southern coach Robyn Broughton still had a smile on her face after seeing her gutsy side push Otago all the way.
"I'm thrilled with them; they've come a long way.
"Otago beat us by the same margin last time. They have improved and we've improved, but there's still that gap between us.
"We were probably a bit anxious in the first quarter but we dug deep and kept the pressure on right to the end."
Scorers: Otago Rebels 57 (Jo Steed 47 goals from 56 attempts, Belinda Colling 10/18), Southern Sting 50 (Donna Loffhagen 38/51, Debbie Munro 12/15).
* This story originally appeared in the Otago Daily Times on May 11, 1998.
