Champs back in training
Reigning netball champions the Southern Steel are six and-a-half weeks from its first game of the season in the ANZ Premiership.
The team, made up of Southland and Otago’s best netballers, returned to training in November, took a break over Christmas and New Year, and resumed their build up on Tuesday.
However, two players, Gina Crampton and Lenize Potgieter, are out of the country playing for New Zealand and South Africa, respectively, at a quad series in Liverpool, England.
Potgieter signed up with Steel in August, after playing the past two seasons for Waikato-Bay of Plenty Magic. Kate Heffernan and Kendall McMinn, both replacement players for Steel last year, are now in the team of 10.
Before its opening game of the season against the Northern Stars, in Hamilton on February 24, Steel will have two pre-season games against Tactix in Ashburton on February 2-3. Four days later, they compete in a round robin tournament with other ANZ Premiership teams in Otaki.
With Wendy Frew retiring last year, the captain’s role is now shared by Gina Crampton and Te Huinga Reo Selby-Rickit.
Coach Reinga Bloxham is looking forward to seeing the team in competition mode again.
‘‘We’ve got a new team, new challenge . . . we’ll see what this team can do,’’ she said.
‘‘We set expectations . . . we strive for common goals that will take us through to the [grand] final.’’
Bloxham is in her third season of coaching Steel.