Rising star emerges, a former Fern returns
Steel’s southern superiority Cullen goes the distance
Is this the week the winless Northern Mystics get going in the ANZ Premiership? They host the Waikato-bay of Plenty Magic tomorrow with clashes between the Southern Steel and the Mainland Tactix, and the Northern Stars and Central Pulse to follow.
Three rounds into the ANZ Premiership, Northern Mystics fans haven’t had a lot to cheer about.
They began with a 23-goal loss to the Central Pulse, followed it up with a 19-goal loss to the Southern Steel, then improved slightly in losing by six to the Northern Stars on Wednesday. But in that last match, they may have given us our first glimpse at a player we’ll see a lot of in the future.
A big reason why they achieved respectability after trailing the Stars by 11 at halftime was the introduction of schoolgirl shooter Grace Nweke. The Avondale College product only turned 17 last month, but you wouldn’t have guessed it by the way she played, making 27 of her 33 shots while providing a more dynamic presence in the shooting circle, one the Stars defenders found hard to move.
Tomorrow’s second match brings the first rematch of the season, though you’ll be hard-pressed to find anyone who thinks the Southern Steel will lose to a Mainland Tactix team they beat by 20 goals back in round one. That clash was in Christchurch and this one is in Invercargill, where the Steel are yet lose in the ANZ Premiership, winning all 12 of their matches in the three seasons so far.
The Steel have scored more goals than any other team this season, averaging 67.5 per match while putting up the most attempts, averaging 81.18 shots per match.
If you watched each of the Northern Stars’ first three games, you saw it – Holly Fowler replacing Kayla Cullen at wing defence, the Silver Fern easing her way back into top-level netball after a long layoff trying to sort out persistent injury issues with her knee.
On Wednesday against the Northern Mystics, it never happened. Fowler did take the court late on, but for Temepara Bailey, with Cullen going the distance.
Cullen told Stuff afterwards that hitting that milestone wasn’t in the plans for Wednesday, or any other day and that she still had work to do, starting on Monday against the Central Pulse. ‘‘Gosh, it just feels so good to be back out there. I don’t think I’m at where I want to be or where I used to be, it’s still a work in progress, but you can’t come back from an injury that bad and expect to play how you used to.’’