Everyone is to blame at Pulse
‘‘The disappointing thing for us is we have been under pressure in every match and we haven’t found any match easy.’’ Pulse coach Yvette Mccausland-durie
It was my fault. No, no, it was mine. No, really, I’m to blame.
Around and around the Central Pulse went, in the aftermath of last Wednesday’s shameful 80-44 loss to the Southern Steel in Porirua.
About the only good thing to come out of it was that no-one went: you know what, I was actually pretty good. Unlike her.
Things had looked pretty rosy for the Pulse until that point. Second in the national netball premiership, a playoff appearance appeared assured. Now they’ve got a bit of work on.
‘‘I’m probably ever the optimist and find it easier to be positive,’’ Pulse coach Yvette Mccauslanddurie said.
But even she’s realised that 36-goal defeat was one that needed to be dwelt on for a bit. No team can dish up that kind of rubbish and just move on.
‘‘The disappointing thing for us is we have been under pressure in every match and we haven’t found any match easy.
‘‘They’ve always been pretty tight encounters, but we’ve managed to stick together and really find some resolve.
‘‘But we really lost confidence and no resilience was evident at that time.
‘‘That was huge for us. We hadn’t experienced that and we’ve talked this week about that connection.’’
You could go into minute detail about the errors the Pulse made. But the nuts and bolts of it are that they lacked the heart to compete with the Steel.
A coach can’t suddenly instil that, so the easiest thing is to work on contingencies or ‘‘what-ifs,’’ as Mccausland-durie called them.
‘‘We know that if we get here again, we know we’ve got a plan A, B and C, whereas we’ve really been working on just A. And it was doing fine, it was getting there, but we need to be really cognisant that B and C might be necessary earlier.’’
The Pulse are down to third on the table, ahead of tomorrow’s clash with the Northern Mystics in Auckland. They host the secondplaced Waikato-bay of Plenty Magic in Palmerston North next Monday, before concluding the round-robin season with games against the Mainland Tactix, improving Northern Stars and the Steel.
Only the top-three teams qualify for the playoffs and the Steel will be one of them.
‘‘The rest of us have been absolutely scrapping for those next few positions and that will be a continued challenge over the next four games,’’ Mccausland-durie said.
‘‘The great thing for us is we’re in control if we can win them. We can control our ability to make the top-three.
‘‘If we drop even one of those games we are then reliant on other teams to help us get there, so we don’t want to be in that space.’’
Being able to drop off their man and claim ball on defence is one thing Mccausland-durie believes will help the Pulse achieve their aim, while keeping their own shooters connected is another challenge.
The Pulse have beaten the Mystics twice already this season but that doesn’t mean much.
When goal attack Maria Tutaia is in the mood, the Mystics are capable of anything.