2023 Constellation Cup (Oct)

If Koenen is GA then Moloney should not be C. Koenen was shooting well (albeit she too was passing off when she would normally shoot so maybe the game plan?) but doesn’t have the court craft and work rate in GA. The South African series is for working on that not this game. They need either Austin or Hadley on to take the hard drives and open space because when they were both off all the Diamonds were standing around behind their players. Weston’s poor pass was the first symptom of that (no options) and rather than address the attack they benched Weston. They lost the connection to Garbin when they started playing around with their attack.

What is with Metuarau’s defence? She is late and deliberate. Other than that NZ were great and well deserved wins for them. Nweke makes a massive difference! Really enjoyed Maddy Gordon’s game today.

Watched the second half of that game.

Goodness me the Ferns attackers were doing everything they could to turn the ball over.

Jury and Burger were immense and it was fantastic they could get the win for Burger’s 50th cap. I think Burger has leapfrogged her VC for that starting GD bib and Watson has been shutout of GK off the back of Jury’s last two performances in particular.

The ceiling on Metuarau’s potential is (currently) her fitness. She can get away with it at ANZP level and she’s an impact player at international level at best. If she wants to be a 60 minute player in the black dress, there’s work to do and she’s absolutely got the talent to do it. I see her future as a WA/GA slide.

I hope Taurua keeps this group together for Quad Series in January and lets them consolidate. By all means, if there’s form dips/lifts in ANZP make changes for the September international window but we need to build.