Steel knows it must be on song to win

EXCITEMENT levels are rising at the Southern Steel.

The team gathered in Invercargill yesterday, now knowing it is hosting the Mainland Tactix in Wednesday night’s ANZ Premiership elimination final.

It will be the first experience for the Tactix of playoff netball, but the Steel knows this is a tougher team than the Tactix has put out before.

All three matches between the sides have been close this year, the Steel winning two, including a 5956 victory in Invercargill three weeks ago.

In particular, the Tactix defensive duo of Temalisi Fakahokotau and Jane Watson has been drawing plenty of praise.

However, Steel coach Reinga Bloxham felt the threat extended further down the court than that.

‘‘I think they’ve got a really dynamic defensive circle,’’ she said.

‘‘At the moment, they are creating a lot of turnover ball for themselves. So I think that’s something they’ve had throughout the season.

‘‘But something they’ve been doing a little bit better the last couple of weeks is looking after the possession they have managed to get and taking it down the other end and scoring.

‘‘We’re going to have to be really smart with what we’re doing and making sure we’re clinical on attack, give them no ball to go for and make sure we score out of anything we can get.’’

Getting the shooters quality ball early would be key to helping them settle.

The home crowd would help with that too, Bloxham saying it gave the Steel a massive boost.

There are several other elements at play for the Steel.

Wendy Frew’s last home game is added motivation. Not only is it significant to honour her legacy with a strong performance, but a win would give her another game in Steel colours.

Another factor is holding the defending champion tag.

However, while that often brings more pressure for teams, Bloxham felt there was less outside expectation than a year ago.

‘‘This year there hasn’t been that expectation, not from other people. From ourselves there’s always been that expectation.

‘‘It has always been our goal to go back to back. It’s something we planned right from the beginning and something we set ourselves a target for.

‘‘I think we’re lucky going into this elimination final that we’ve got players in our team that have done this before.

‘‘Having experience of being able to cope with that pressure is quite a big deal, when you think about being put under that immense pressure and the intensity.’’