2024 ANZP ROUND 15

This Steel team is leaving their worst to last, a dam good clean out needed.

McLeod, I agree. I was going to put more here but I’m sure I’d upset forumers if I gave my honest opinion on the last two seasons down south.

I am very foreign to knowing NZ geographically, but is Invercagill/Dunedin ‘on the other side of the world’ similar to WA in Australia. Seems Perth based sides in both AFL/SSN struggle to recruit players not from that state.
I believe out of the contracted Steel players, Savineea (sp?) is the only one not from the region. (Unsure re Namana). Obviously Temu, Serina being replacement players have come from elsewhere.

Are there any players around the league that are from down south? I believe Dunn is from there. Is TPSR too, or did she just start her career down there. Same with Hume, I know early days she played at the Steel, but is that her region or recruited to play down there.

Surely the Steel cannot recruit Fisher next season. She’s never going to come back being the same player after 2 years out – and seems no closer to playing.

Third times a charm I hope, twice my screen has blanked while typing this.
I believe Watson was from Southern Region.

Fisher should not have been offered a full player contract for this season with only an assumed return from injury early season. A training partner yes, full player no – I hope they don’t act foolishly and contract her again for this next season. This would have freed up significant funds to go out and attract a good shooter from another region.
Jen O’Connell was not a good choice as a replacement shoot having not played for a couple of years (since ACL) at this level and it showed. 5?mins on court, fell trying to take a ball and injured for the rest of the season.
Kate Heffernan – is not a C, she is a WD who can play C. Same as Silver Ferns, it doesn’t work. The Steel need to get out and find/recruit a player whose main position is C.
Shannon Saunders – I know of no player who has returned from maternity leave and shown their great form pre-pregnancy. They have all taken a season to get their fitness back. Should have been a training partner – unlikely to have ended up injured this way. I don’t think she will be back next season.
The Steel have shown no joy in their games this year, its been laboured, they look like they are over it.
Hopefully a new coach is found soon, an experienced coach not someone who has played netball but haven’t coached at this level. Offer an attractive package to draw players down.
Tactix went through this for quite a number of years (for mostly differing reasons) and look at them now.

Jane Watson is from near Timaru so that is Tactix area.
Something is not right at the Steel, clearly there seems issues.

Mystics have named Toeava in their starting line up – lets hope she’s fit enough for a full game. The rest of the starting 7 remain the same as the last few games.

Half time Mystics 31 – 28 Stars. Stars came out firing in the second quarter and pulled back to 1 difference. Mystics then slowly built up to a 6 advantage which has been pegged back again. Malesala at GA has made quite a difference as has Lisa Mather at C.