On the eve of the Otago netball centennial celebrations, Otago Daily Times sports editor Hayden Meikle catches up with four key players (and shares his own memories) from a remarkable season.
The Rebels
Belinda Colling: ''It's all one big blur. We've all had so many children. Sleep deprivation has left us with half brains.''
Anna Stanley: ''I moved from Christchurch to start my phys ed degree at Otago. My older sister was already down there, and both my parents had gone through phys ed school. I joined the Albion club. Katie, Belinda and those girls were there, and it was a natural progression to join them.''
Lesley Rumball: ''I'd gone to Dunedin for my seventh form year and played for Otago. We actually got relegated that year. Georgie started developing the core of that team, and then Annie and Bill and the others came to university.''
Hayden Meikle: ''I started at the ODT on March 16, 1998. Knew nothing about netball. But Georgie Salter had been my babysitter, so at least I knew the coach. I remember Georgie introducing me to a player for the first time. Anna Rowberry, it was. Friendly and, yes, dazzlingly attractive. Sorry, Annie.''
Colling: ''Everybody came to Otago for their education, I think. The only one we talked into coming was Belinda Charteris. We needed a goal defence and she was the best in the business.''
Rumball: ''She flatted with me, so I might have been partly involved. She was a very strong Cantabrian - still is - so for her to come to Dunedin was a big thing. But I think it helped her in terms of her international career.''
Belinda Charteris (ODT, 23.4.98): ''I was open to suggestions. Initially, I was going to Auckland but I changed my mind and came here, purely for coaching reasons. I thought Georgie had a lot to offer.''
Richard Boock (ODT, 6.11.97): ''An eight team, franchise based netball competition embracing many of the principles of rugby's Super 12 will replace the national club league next year. The Coca Cola Cup league, won by Dunedin side Albion in June, is to be remodelled into an elite, regionally based event to be played on a round robin basis over five weeks, starting on March 29, 1998.''
Jo Morrison: ''We got paid $50 a game and we thought that was the best thing in the world.''
Rumball: ''It can't have been a lot. It certainly wasn't for the money we were doing it.''
Colling: ''It was quite exciting. Something different and a bit snazzed up. I remember lots of discussion about the name. We were given three options, I think, and they were all winter themed. The Ice, or something.
''I don't think we got the whole 'Rebels' thing straight away. But in hindsight, it probably fitted our group quite well. There was some song as well. It was hilarious. 'Rebel, rebel, your face is a mess' or something really weird like that.''
Stanley: ''It was a name that was certainly appropriate for us at the time.''
Colling: ''We all had big personalities that sort of clashed and gelled at the same time. We weren't afraid to make each other accountable, and I think good teams have that ability to be honest with each other.''
Stanley: ''Who was going to get the most drunk at a party? That would be Vic Edward. Katie Fay was always the one you couldn't shut up. She was the class clown/organiser. It was always nice to have Katie on board as a med student.
''She helped us skip the queue at A & E a few times. Lesley was obviously the most mature, sensible, reliable one. Belinda Colling was sort of camp mum. She had to know what everyone else was doing. We called her PP - Poky Puppy.''
Rumball: ''That came from the Little Golden Books. Belinda was the Poky Puppy - she always had to know what was going on. They called me Just One More for a while, because I would always call that out at training.''
Morrison: ''Les was our most serious and sensible one. She sort of set the benchmark for professionalism. Katie asked a lot of questions and challenged everything. She's just an exceptionally intelligent person. She made us think about what we were doing, which was really healthy.''
Meikle: ''My view from the outside was that Annie was the most exciting to watch, Lesley was clearly the leader, Bill Colling was a little intimidating (I'm still slightly scared of her), Vic and Jo seemed relatively quiet, and Katie was a bit of a joker.''
Rumball: ''We also had a pre season trip to Australia one year when we all got Australian animal nicknames. I was Brumby, Vic was Dingo - because she was so fast - and Bill Colling was Chameleon.''
Colling: ''We knew it was something special. Not just on the court but our connection off the court. We were all at university and enjoyed each other's company. And I think we challenged each other. We did have a great time. We had lots of fun.''
Stanley: ''We quite liked our cocktail parties. I remember one particularly well. We all got dressed up and had vodka jellies and things. Georgie got a bit silly, as she does after a few drinks, and pulled Katie Fay's dress right up.
''Unfortunately, Katie was going commando that night, so we saw a little bit more of her than we needed to. She was just mortified, yelling and screaming at Georgie.''
Morrison: ''We were a group of girls who played hard, trained hard and partied hard.''
Stanley: ''It's a pretty special group. I think we were really lucky. We partied hard but we played hard, you know. We knew how to have fun off the court and work really hard on the court. We were all studying, so our lives had a bit of balance.''
Colling: ''I got banned by Georgie from having a 21st. I even got shifted out of my flat at one point. Anna and Jo and I would always cop flak. Georgie loved her defenders. Those guys could do no wrong.''
Rumball: ''That's because we were doing our job. I think she just knew what people responded to. She set really high standards, and you'd be told if you weren't pulling your weight.''
Stanley: ''She was so tough on me, Belinda and Jo. And when Georgie lets rip, she lets rip. We decided that she was tougher on us because we could handle it. Defenders were a bit precious. She also probably knew that if she yelled at Katie, Katie would yell straight back.''
Morrison: ''Georgie threw the book down at me a couple of times. I think I started to cry once. But she took it out on Annie and Bill the most because they could take it. She wouldn't start an argument with Katie because she'd be there all night.''
Colling: ''Georgie was unique. She always came at things from angles that were a bit different. For our group, full of people with a bit of initiative, that was great. I think we would have got bored with a mainstream coach.
''She really pushed people's buttons and she challenged you to get the best out of yourself. Sheryll Roy was really good at team culture stuff. She brought us together really well and had a lot of fun. Georgie was more the taskmaster.''
Rumball: ''She drew everyone together. She knew how to get the best out of different personalities.''
Morrison: ''Georgie was just so creative in how we looked at the game. The stars aligned, really. We were eager to learn.''
Colling: ''We just always had this sense we were going to win. In games when we were losing, we'd never be worried.''
Morrison: ''There was never a time playing with that group of girls when I thought we couldn't win. I don't mean to sound arrogant. I always knew that if we connected, we'd win. I had utter confidence in my team mates.''
Stanley: ''It felt like we were in our own bubble in the Otago team. When we travelled away, we knew that we were the `hunted', given our winning record, and I think at times other teams really didn't like us for that reason. But we were such a tight bunch of girls who were all very competitive, so we never allowed any of the outside pressures to get to us.''
Morrison: ''One of the keys to our success was how we challenged each other. We pushed each other on and off the court, and had some good debates. We liked to push the boundaries.''
Meikle (ODT, 11.5.98): ''As the final whistle blew at the Edgar Centre on Saturday night, the crowd stood to applaud and the Otago Rebels jumped into the air to celebrate a fitting conclusion to their triumphant season.
''Otago had earned the national netball league crown by beating the Southern Sting 57-50 in 60 minutes of fast paced action watched by nearly 3000 fans.''
Rumball: ''Just a feeling of total elation.''
Colling: ''That blue and gold court. I couldn't tell you much about the game. But I remember there being some issues about the seating. The Sting had bought out a whole heap of the stand, and I remember we felt really let down. They had all the money and they bought a whole heap of seating. That gave us a lot of motivation.''
Stanley: ''I think I got player of the season. It was a heinous leather jacket and a little trophy.''
Meikle: ''Professionally, I respect the Steel's place and genuinely look forward to the day it wins the ANZ Championship. Personally, I wish the Rebels were still here. They were my team.''
Rumball: ''The NPC was probably an even bigger deal for me. I'd been in an Otago team that had got relegated. To come from that to being champions showed how teams go in cycles.''
Meikle (ODT, 9.6.98): ''Otago coach Georgie Salter wants 11 players who can win netball's Caltex Cup - and she is confident she has them. Salter and selectors Pat Campbell and Sheryll Roy named a 15 strong, preliminary squad for the provincial championship last night.
''The squad is dominated by members of the victorious Coca Cola Cup team, including Silver Ferns Lesley Nicol, Anna Rowberry, Belinda Colling, Jo Steed and Belinda Blair.''
Stanley: ''We enjoyed playing for Otago just as much as we enjoyed playing for the Rebels. It was a week long competition, so it was a bit of survival of the fittest. But you'd still be able to go away for a week and have a great time.''
Colling: ''In our day, the NPC was a big thing. All the top players still played in it. It was still the best of the best.''
Meikle: ''The Rebels and Otago combined to win 22 straight games in a single year. Crazy, really.''
Stanley: ''We didn't focus on any of that outside stuff, like winning streaks. Georgie was just about making us all better players. We all had individual targets, and if we met them, we would win the game.
''We were so wrapped up in being the best we could be that we didn't have time to think about pressure.''
Rumball: ''I don't recall feeling having that pressure. Georgie's coaching wasn't focused on winning - it was about working on individual things, and the results would take care of themselves.''
Colling: ''I'd hurt my ankle. I was coaching a school team in high heels and did my ankle. I rang Katie, who was a med student, and asked her to come and get me. They X rayed it and said it was broken and they were going to put it into a cast. Katie goes, `No, no, no, she's got to play netball'.''
Meikle (ODT, 17.8.98): ''Sheryll Roy had the Moet champagne iced and ready to crack open before the Caltex Cup final had started on Saturday night.
''The stalwart of Otago netball, who led Albion to the Coca Cola Cup title for the first time last year and was assistant coach to Georgie Salter with the Otago Rebels, was court side at Mystery Creek just waiting for an excuse to celebrate. 'I've been coming to this tournament for so many years. All I can say is it's about time,' Roy said.''
Rumball: ''What Sheryll did with Albion flowed into the Rebels and Otago as well. Her coaching really set us up well. She complemented Georgie quite nicely.''
Stanley: ''We also had our manager, Tracey Paterson, who's now in high performance in hockey and netball. Sharon Kearney was our physio, and she's gone on to do 20 years with the Silver Ferns. So 1998 wasn't just about great players but about coaches and management as well.''
Meikle: ''It's a story I told a couple of my colleagues, and I wish I had kept quiet. After the NPC final, I was waiting at Mystery Creek for a taxi. This minivan screeched to a halt in front of me, and one of the players - Lesley, from memory - flung open the door and said, 'Right, Meikle, get in this van. You're coming for a drink.'
''I was young and very dumb. I panicked and I turned them down. I remember seeing Adine and asking her if she was old enough to drink. She went red in the face. I was young and very dumb.''
Morrison: ''We had each other's backs in every aspect of life. It was much bigger than netball.''
Stanley: ''I saw Jo recently at a wedding. I catch up with Belinda most weeks. I talk to those guys on the phone a lot. If I go to Rotorua, Katie is the first person I ring. We did a girls' weekend in Queenstown last year - three nights with six of us.
''They're my good friends and I love hanging out with them still.''
Rumball: ''The friendships made that year have carried right through. We had a reunion a year ago in Queenstown and it was just so much fun.''
Colling: ''We were - still are - a group of friends. It was a special chapter in our lives. I can't compare it to anything else. They're friendships that will be there forever.''
Stanley: ''The centenary should be a good weekend. We'll pretend we're 20 again. All our husbands are coming, too. We basically all met our husbands in Otago and it will be cool to have them there.''
Meikle: ''I honestly believe that 1998 team - just the Rebels or just Otago, because they were essentially the same - is the greatest domestic team in the history of New Zealand netball. It would have beaten anyone.''
Stanley: ''I've always looked back on my Otago years as some of the best in my life. As a team, we shared some amazing experiences together that continued well after our uni days. We laugh like nothing else when we get together. I love them all heaps.''
