Grant: We must keep our finger on the Pulse
The Central Pulse may have been the pre-season favourites, but no one could have predicted their astonishing start to this year’s ANZ Premiership.
Winning 18 of 20 quarters so far this season, the Pulse have more than proved their worth and dominance on local netball’s biggest stage.
And decisively extending their unbeaten record-run on Wednesday night — smashing the Southern Steel 71-40 — the Pulse somehow lifted their already impressive standards.
However, Pulse captain Katrina Grant said although the win was a confidence boost, she wasn’t surprised by her side’s hefty victory.
“I’m definitely not surprised by our performance, 31 is a big winning margin, but this team has got great potential and we train very hard against each other,” she said.
“We have really high expectations of each other so I think that really shows out on the court.
“Everyone stepped up more consistently across the whole court . . . no matter who we put on we have absolute faith in everybody and everyone just had each other’s backs.”
Grant said she was pleased with her team’s all-round performance during the round four clash, praising the attack and defence.
But the Silver Ferns captain insisted there was still more work to do and didn’t believe that the Pulse had yet reached their full potential.
“I think it was a full-rounded team effort, links from attack to defence came together and didn’t look split, I think we all came together and were on the same page,” she said.
“But there’s always things to work on . . . we want to win and we want to keep building and lifting and if we keep doing that we’re going to be better.
“I think we’ve really set the standard at the moment and that means that we always have to lift.
“Every team from now on is going to come up against us and want to beat us and really put their best performance forward, so we have to keep lifting.”
The Pulse lead the ANZ Premiership ladder, three points ahead of the Mainland Tactix, and the Northern Mystics and Steel. They next face the Mystics at Auckland’s Trusts Arena on Sunday.