Young Mystics learning how to cope with high-pressure netball
Northern Mystics coach Helene Wilson says she’ll carefully manage the talented Grace Nweke after her incredible debut on Wednesday.
The Mystics take on the Magic on Auckland’s North Shore at 5pm today and attention will be on goal shoot Nweke, who turned 17 last month.
The Avondale College pupil shot 27 from 33 after coming on in the second half in the midweek defeat to the Stars.
During those 30 minutes Nweke went from being a little known teenager to one of the brightest and most exciting netball prospects in New Zealand.
There’s an adage in sport that if you’re good enough, you’re old enough, but Wilson says Nweke needs to be properly nurtured in the early stages of her career.
‘‘It’s a real challenge and from my point of view,’’ Wilson said.
‘‘A young player can go on for half an hour and have a positive experience, but the art of being an ANZ [Premiership] player is whether you can cope with pressure over 60 minutes.
‘‘That’s something that’s learnt with time and experience, and being able to cope and understand what’s going on.
‘‘Physically, Grace is a young athlete and she is new to training in the high performance environment, so we need to be careful in building her into what her potential is and doing things with her, too fast, too quickly.’’
With Bailey Mes, Jamie Hume and Kristina Bryce all having struggles with scoring at a high enough percentage this season, there could be the temptation for Wilson to go with the hot hand and play Nweke for 60 minutes in the crucial game against the Magic.
However, Wilson knows she can’t overuse her fledgling star.
‘‘I have to use the experts around me, as well as my knowledge of her as a player and my knowledge of the opposition, to ensure that when she takes to the court, she’s physically ready to cope,’’ Wilson said.
‘‘Also, that she understands what to do. You don’t want to put a young player that’s 17 in a space where they feel like they’re letting the team down, and that they don’t know how to cope with the pressure.
‘‘Obviously, Grace’s talent is there for everyone to see, but if you want a player to reach their potential and one day play at the highest level, growing their ability and knowing how to use what she has takes time and experience.
‘‘She’s not necessarily going to be able to play for 60 minutes, week in, week out right now, because she’s 17 and has been introduced to netball at this level for about six months.’’
Nweke isn’t the only young prospect Mystics fans should be excited about for the future, with centre Tayla Earle, who was last year’s NZ Secondary Schools’ player-of-theyear, also a great talent.
In Nweke and Earle, the Mystics have two players who the club can build their future around.
‘‘You have a choice as a coach,’’ Wilson said. ‘‘You can recruit experience and players who can lead, or you can recruit and grow experience, which can be more challenging, because experience comes from learning in the moment and dealing with pressure.
‘‘Tayla is a fully contracted player. I’ve seen media say she’s a training partner, she’s not.
‘‘She’s really skilled and she’s transitioning from school netball to high performance netball, and she’s learning and understanding how she applies her skills and strengths. We saw that against the Stars.
‘‘But the other part of that is putting
Tayla on against Temepara Bailey first-up, a huge task, so you’ve got to bring her on when she understands what Temepara is bringing to the game, and then she can play well — that’s the opportunity Tayla had.’’