Magic make hard work of it again

Stop me if you’ve heard these ones before.

The Waikato-Bay of Plenty Magic take the lead against the Mainland Tactix early, then maintain their advantage until the final buzzer, holding their opponents off when they try to rally late.

In a shootout, with neither team’s defensive end providing much in the way of resistance, the Southern Steel pip the Northern Stars, who keep the margin small enough that they go away with a bonus point for their efforts.

If you’ve been keeping a close eye on the national netball premiership, they will sound familiar, because that’s what’s happened when those teams played during round five and what happened when they met again yesterday. The Magic beat the Tactix 48-47 and the Steel beat the Stars 63-60.

The Magic were the big winners from the early games, moving up to fourth after being last a week ago. Three wins in a row can do that and, with the winless Stars next in their sights on Wednesday in Tauranga, they will be confident of making it four.

Their inexperienced goal keep Kate Lloyd has stepped up admirably since Silver Fern Kelly Jury suffered a shoulder injury that has since ruled her out for the season, playing alongside the ageless Casey Kopua.

The Tactix have now lost three in a row at home and were undone for the secondstraight game by their shooters, who made only 67 per cent of their shots.