Steel sees ‘superstar’ in Fisher
NETBALL
WELLINGTON: Southern Steel coach Reinga Bloxham is loving what she is seeing courtside from England Roses shooter George Fisher, who is heading to the ANZ Premiership franchise next year.
Bloxham is in the Silver Ferns’ camp this week as an apprentice coach and was excited she was able to see her new signing up close.
‘‘And I think she’s putting her hand up in terms of her ability to shoot and go to post, like her accuracy yesterday was just outstanding, and it’s nice to see her muscle up against the physicality of our defence and not shy away from that.
‘‘That was something that we talked about when she was going to be coming to this competition, so for her to experience that before she gets into ANZ is going to be vital for us going forward,’’ said Bloxham.
‘‘I think she’s going to be a bit of a superstar for us and I hope she’s going to add something different. She’s very vibrant in what she’s doing and she’s going to stamp her mark on the competition, but I think she will definitely add value to our team.’’
When the Steel lost Georgia Heffernan and Jen O’Connell to ACL injuries this year, Bloxham looked within New Zealand first for potential shooters.
‘‘But then she [Fisher] approached us and when I was watching her clips and things, I thought she could be somebody who could be quite handy.
‘‘She’s nice and tall, she’s very agile for a very tall person, she’s got safe hands and a beautiful shot, so it wasn’t hard to see what she could add to our team, especially losing those two shooters during the season.’’
The 1.88m Fisher will join Tiana Metuarau and Kiana Pelasio in filling out a newlook shooting circle for the team.
Reliable Trinidad and Tobago shooter Kalifa McCollin, who spent this year at the Steel, recently signed with the Collingwood Magpies in the Australian competition.
Bloxham also had a spell as an apprentice coach a couple of years ago under Silver Ferns coach Dame Noeline Taurua.
She said she enjoyed learning about the environment at the next highperformance level and contributing to offcourt discussions with Dame Noeline and assistant coach Debbie Fuller.
She said the week had reinforced how demanding the top level was.
‘‘The way that the series is structured and the prep that they’ve done coming in, it’s been quite full on, and I imagine that when they finish they’re
[players and coaches] going to be extremely exhausted.
‘‘It just sort of shows how much they can cram into a short amount of time and how resilient the players and also the management team are at building to these competitions to make sure that they are prepared best going forward.
‘‘In saying that, I think that this English side has really surprised a lot of us in how well they’ve prepared, they’ve done their homework and what they’ve brought to the game, and it’s been really exciting to see that competition out there.’’