Practising shots – and isolation
Leaving the Pulse and her family was tough for Tiana Metuarau – but, writes Phillip Rollo ,it is already paying off.
There is usually a text message waiting for Tiana Metuarau whenever she has finished playing a game in the ANZ Premiership.
That is how it was for five seasons with her hometown team Central Pulse, where her mum, Silver Ferns legend Waimarama Taumanu, is a specialist coach and the Netball Central Zone’s head of high performance.
But after helping Southern Steel upset her former team in an MVP performance last weekend it was Metuarau who had to break the ice first after noticing her messages were curiously empty at fulltime.
‘‘I think she was probably trying to dissect what went wrong for them and figure out the next training day and all that sort of stuff,’’ she said. ‘‘But at the same time there’s quite a competitive nature in our household, particularly because I’m down here now.
‘‘It’s almost like we try not to share too much, whereas when I was at the Pulse I’d ask her what she thought of the game and she would give me all the feedback.’’
Last year, Metuarau made the toughest decision of her promising young netball career when she moved away from the Pulse after her court time with the two-time defending champions dried up. She had seen more minutes in her first season as a 15-year-old than she did in 2020, stuck behind Silver Ferns captain Ameliaranne Ekenasio at goal attack.
The under-21 international has a close relationship with her parents and said the hardest part of leaving the Pulse was moving away from her family for the first time. But she knew it was the right decision if she wanted to kick on and become a Silver Fern.
She now lives with new teammates in Dunedin and makes the 2.5-hour commute to Invercargill multiple times each week.
‘‘I think the transition down here was really easy, although the first couple of weeks felt like hell because I had really bad separation anxiety. For a good period of the first months I would isolate myself and stay at home, which is not me.
‘‘When I’m in Wellington I’m out surfing or out catching up with mates, going out for lunch and all those sorts of things. But as the days have gone on it’s got a lot easier and the people; the girls in particular, the management and staff, they’re such cool people.
‘‘I’m a people person so to feel
comfortable with them was my biggest concern because I always felt really anxious around people I didn’t know, and this was really foreign for me living away from home.
‘‘Just to play week in, week out is really, really nice. I don’t think I had played a full 60 since I was 18 so it’s great to be out there, and I’m feeling a lot more comfortable here and I’m loving it.’’
The 20-year-old has played the full 60 minutes in each of the Steel’s first three games, tasting victory in two against the Tactix and the Pulse to make a mockery of preseason predictions that tipped them for the wooden spoon.
Metuarau has played a prominent role for the Steel, forming a unique shooting circle combination with England international George Fisher.
Fisher is a leading scorer in the ANZ Premiership but Metuarau’s shooting volume is one of the lowest of the 12 starting shooters across the six teams.
But that is purposeful: Fisher is the team’s primary scorer whereas Metuarau – who was also born in England – is almost operating as a hybrid goal-attack/wing-attack. Her job is to get the ball to a player who is shooting at 95 per cent and has the second highest number of goals, 136.
Metuarau has the second highest centre pass received stats in the competition (behind Pulse wing attack Whitney Souness) and is the only shooter in the top 10 for feeds into the circle.
She can shoot when she needs to though, landing a perfect eight from eight against the Pulse.
‘‘There’s a really good balance,’’ she said. ‘‘I want the ball and I want to get it to her, and she wants to shoot. People might think I’m a ball hog, but I feel like I can make things happen when I have the ball in my hands. Of course the focus is to get my volume up. On Sunday I only put up eight, but I got them all and I managed to get the ball into G consistently, and if you’re getting the ball to your shooter then you’re doing your job, right?’’
Despite her lack of court time at the Pulse, Metuarua said she held no ill-feeling towards her former team and relished the chance to play against them for the first time.
She is still close with most of the playing squad and was delighted to claim bragging rights in the group chat she is in with Aliyah Dunn and Maddy Gordon.
‘‘When I play a game against my old franchise, it doesn’t become a place of malice. It was just an enjoyable game and, had we lost, my group chat with Aliyah and Maddy probably would’ve been going off and I wouldn’t have heard the end of it.
‘‘There were a few jokes on court with a few thousand people and it’s good you can still have those sorts of relationship on court.’’
Metuarau and the Steel will be looking to continue their positive start to the 2021 season when they travel to Auckland to play leaders Northern Stars today before another date with the Pulse next week.
‘‘I only put up eight, but I got them all and ... if you’re getting the ball to your shooter then you’re doing your job, right?’’ Tiana Metuarau