Pulse captain happy to hit the road

As far as Katrina Grant is concerned, being forced to play the ANZ Premiership final outside Wellington is a nonissue.

In fact, Grant seemed genuinely excited about the prospect of road tripping to Palmerston North ahead of the competition decider, which will be played against either the Southern Steel or Mainland Tactix, next Sunday.

Yep that’s right, the Pulse are hitting the road.

‘‘We’re not flying. It’s definitely just a roadie. It’s only, what, an hourand-a-half, two hours? It’s only a drive up the road,’’ Grant said.

‘‘We’ve always played well in Palmy, the support has always been outstanding and all of us know someone in Palmy. It’s part of our region and we’re just excited about having a home final no matter where it is.’’

It was confirmed last week that Fly Palmy Arena would host the final as the Pulse’s more usual home venues, TSB Arena in Wellington and Te Rauparaha Arena in Porirua, were unavailable due to prior bookings.

But if Grant was upset by the prospect of taking the final on the road, she certainly wasn’t showing it. She even said it might be beneficial for the team to stay together in the leadup to the biggest game in franchise history.

The initial plan is to begin the journey to Palmerston North next Saturday, stopping in Otaki for one final training session at Te Wananga o Raukawa, which is one of their major sponsors, before sharing a team dinner the night before the game.

‘‘We love training up in Otaki, they’ll feed us, then we’ll shoot up to Palmy. We’re kind of seeing our family along the way. It could be a blessing in disguise because we’ll be staying together and we’ll be a tight-knit unit,’’ she said. ‘‘We had a great time at the Super Sunday there in the first game of the season and we’re just relishing the chance to host a final.’’

The Pulse will ride a wave of momentum heading into the final, after beating the Northern Mystics 55-48 on Wednesday night. Although they were already guaranteed to host the final, Grant said the Pulse were desperate to put out a strong performance against the Mystics, especially as there is such a long break between that match and the decider.

‘‘This game meant a lot to us. It was our last game in Wellington. We are really excited about going to Palmerston North and playing the final there. But momentum is the key. We always talk about it in sport and you make your own momentum, and hopefully we’ve done that.

‘‘There’s still quite a lot to work on after this but the Mystics really threw it at us. It was a good game to have [leading into the final]. It was such an intense game.’’

After revealing last week she is weighing up her future at the Pulse due to her lack of court time in 2018, Ameliaranne Ekenasio was handed a second consecutive start on Wednesday. She shouldered the team’s scoring load, nailing 30 from 37, and caught the eye of her skipper, who encouraged the Pulse to retain the underutilised Silver Fern for next year.

‘‘That’s Meels to a tee. She’s the positive energy in our team.Having internal competition is massive for us. It keeps us competitive and keeps us where we are. It means trainings are always intense, it means going into game day that we’re always pushing to start and you want to get on the court and play well.’’

‘‘We’ve always played well in Palmy, the support has always been outstanding.’’