Saints’ playoff hopes hang in the balance
year, an extension seems highly likely.
Morgan is expecting to fight another two times in 2015 after the Gemmell bout.
‘‘I didn’t want to rush him too much because I want the improvement in-between each fight,’’ Shatford said.
Both agree Morgan is going into Saturday night’s clash in the best shape of his professional career.
A freezing worker by day, Morgan has had three weeks off work leading into the bout and has noticed the difference. Ugly quarters have done little to dampen the expectations of a resurgent Saints side, which faces its biggest premier club netball challenge next week.
Saints suffered a 33-51 loss to Lincoln University at Pioneer Stadium on Tuesday night – punctuated by poor efforts in the second and third spells when they lost their way – while Kereru came from behind to beat St Nicholas 57-53 and Technical beat Halswell 57-41.
Saints coach Helen MahonStroud said they would have to look at the positives from the match and ‘‘dump the rest’’ with a key game against Technical next week likely to determine their chances of making the playoffs.
‘‘We’ve come up from prem 2 (grade) and we believe we’re contenders,’’ she said. ‘‘We’ve got the skills and these guys have been building. We know that Technical are strong in all areas of the court but at the same time we know when we come out and play a fast game and let the ball go we play really well.’’
She said a change in defensive tactics from Lincoln University sparked the second quarter rout with her charges not adjusting fast enough.
‘‘We continued to try and play an aerial game and you can’t put ball over the top of these Lincoln defenders. If we want to compete up here then we’ve got to learn to change what we’re doing much faster.’’
Lincoln University grabbed the game by the scruff straight after the second quarter whistles blew with eight unanswered goals – feeding off Saints errors and a strong defensive effort from Jane Watson, Lily Fletcher and Hayley Saunders stifling any attacking flow.
They led by 20 goals with one quarter to play and continue to raise the bar in the championship Julianna Naoupu was a key performer for Kereru, landing 41/46. round with just two matches to go until the playoffs.
A lapse in concentration early in the fourth quarter proved costly for St Nicholas after they went down 53-57 to Kereru.
They led for three quarters of the match, but coach Nic Kelly said the inability to maintain that intensity for a full 60 minutes opened the door for Kereru which lifted their ‘‘one-on-one defence’’ in the deciding spell.
Morgan Rennie and Emily Mabin combined this week to trouble Kereru’s experienced duo of Julianna Naoupu and Lauren Robb, but the real battle belonged in the midcourt where Chloe Williamson was strong for St Nicholas and matched Kereru pivot Terauoriwa Harding in an exciting first half.
St Nicholas will be left ruing their accuracy in the shooting circle having put up four more attempts at goal than Kereru.
‘‘There’s no doubt we’ve stepped up for the championship round but it’s just about holding that focus for the full game,’’ Kelly said. ‘‘I think we’ve shown we’ve got the game there but it’s just small lapses which hurt.’’
Technical shook off the disappointment from last week’s loss to beat Halswell 57-41 but it took a dominating third quarter to set their minds at ease. The connections from defence to attack look settled with the return of Mahara Feah to the midcourt while Jess Prosser impressed in the shooting circle missing just four goals from 37 attempts.