Henry’s passion sets an example

‘We’re not treasuring possession well enough, we’re not giving our shooters good enough service and the shooters aren’t doing a good enough job of doing what they’re meant to do, which is shooting the goals.’

LAST Monday had seemed a pretty good one for Joline Henry.

Sure, the Central Pulse lost to Northern Mystics, but you couldn’t lay the blame on the wing defence.

Her Mystics opponent Millie Lees had been substituted at halftime after their coaching staff decided the wing attack wasn’t available enough for the ball.

In theory, that should’ve been a real feather in Henry’s cap. If Lees couldn’t get her hands on possession, it was because Henry wasn’t allowing her to.

‘‘Yeah, that’s normally a good indicator that you’re doing your job. Especially when they’re a current

Joline Henry Silver Fern,’’ Henry said ahead of tonight’s clash with the Waikato-Bay of Plenty Magic at TSB Bank Arena.

‘‘But I had my meeting with Wai [Silver Ferns coach Waimarama Taumaunu] for our Ferns cluster camp and she seemed to think I was capable of a lot more.’’

Taumaunu would like Henry to come out and claim a few more intercepts. That’s not hugely compatible with denying the opposition wing attack the ball, but Henry isn’t one to argue the toss.

But she does always tell things straight and isn’t a much doubt about why the Pulse have started the trans-Tasman Netball League season 1-3.

‘‘We’re not treasuring possession well enough, we’re not giving our shooters good enough service and the shooters aren’t doing a good enough job of doing what they’re meant to do, which is shooting the goals,’’ she said.

All anyone can do, she felt, was their own job well.

If they do that and their unit does too – in her case the defence – then the team stands a decent chance of winning.

So, in the defensive sense, Henry is happy to say she’s playing her part. When she’s not outplaying opposites such as Lees, then she’s setting up goal defence Katrina Grant for yet another intercept.

But where Henry has helped the team is on attack.

‘‘The first couple of weeks I had absolute shockers and I’m really battling to find our attackers, which is normally not a problem for me. We all know my possession [rate] is generally high so I need to make sure that, even though I’m a strong ball-carrier, that I’m not a strong costly ballcarrier.’’

The Pulse aren’t always the most direct team, tending to be quite deliberate through the court and especially once they reach the circle edge.

Henry, though, works on the basis that the quickest, and often

not best, way to get the ball to the post is with one big pass.

It’s been a great strength of hers, and one of the reasons Pulse coach Robyn Broughton played her at centre in previous seasons, but the accuracy hasn’t quite been there in this campaign.

The Pulse will need to do just about everything right, if they’re to defeat the Magic. Everyone’s aware that errant shooting is costing the teams wins, but the solution since last week’s 49-44 loss to the Mystics has been to focus on the quality of ball into the circle.

Henry, Grant and goal-keep Ama Agbeze will do their bit to beat the Magic. So, if the service to the shooters is right, there’ll be noone else to blame if the result doesn’t go the home side’s way.