Watson excited to take on her old team-mates
Southern Steel netball goal keep Jane Watson is looking forward to facing her former team, the Mainland Tactix, tomorrow night.
The South Canterbury-raised Silver Ferns star started her ANZ Championship career with the Christchurch-based franchise in 2012, before heading south to join the Steel in 2015.
For Watson, who still lives in Tactix territory when she is not with the Invercargill-based Steel franchise, tomorrow’s match will be a chance to square off against her former team-mates like Anna Thompson, Hayley Saunders, Nicola Mackle, Zoe Walker and Jess Moulds.
Watson will have a band of supporters at tomorrow’s game in Christchurch, between the southern neighbours with her family Steel supporters.
According to Watson, the Steel still have plenty to work on despite being the only unbeaten team in the competition, taking on the only team yet to register a win.
‘‘Everyone on our team is doing their own jobs, it is really important that we still have a lot of things to work on after every game and we go away and analyse it, so it is a lot of hard work,’’ she said.
‘‘Most of our training have the same routine to them, we analyse the other team and work out what we need to do and try and put that into our trainings and focus on the game that’s coming up.
‘‘So I guess that is the reason we do week by week and we don’t really change things hugely, I guess that works for us how we work as a team.’’
‘‘Having a lot of members of our team from last year would help as well.’’
The 1.81m netballer has impressed in the 2017 national league.
Heading into round four of the competition Watson had the most deflections in the competition with 25, sat fourth in intercepts with eight and sixth in rebounds with five. The goal keep has formed a strong combination with both Te Huinga Selby-Rickit and New Zealand under-21 international Abby Erwood in the defensive circle for the Steel this season, with Watson proving a key part of the southern combination to down the WaikatoBay of Plenty Magic 72-59 in round three.
The 27-year-old feels that she is raising the level of her game after last season.
She has benefited from time spent in the Silver Ferns squad, for whom she made her international debut in 2016.
‘‘Every game and experience I get is going to add value to my game, any game I have out there anywhere helps a lot,’’ she said.
Heading into the Tactix game the defender is enjoying the new tactical substitution rules, which means that coaches get the opportunity to make unlimited changes.
‘‘Yeah, it is always good to get everyone out on court and get many people experiencing the level of netball,’’ she said.
‘‘You just have to adapt with who you are playing with out there and just go with the flow.’’