Cloud hovers over

This story was originally published on Locker Room at Newsroom.co. nz, and is republished with permission.

T‘‘I definitely want to keep playing because I love being part of that team. How can you ever say you wouldn’t want to represent your country?’’ she says.

‘‘But I also need to start thinking about what’s next and finding my way outside of netball.’’

Crampton isn’t without skills off the court. The Wellington Girls’ graduate moved to Dunedin a decade ago to study PE at the University of Otago, but then switched across to Otago Polytechnic where she completed her study in personal training, with a postgraduate diploma in physical conditioning.

‘‘I’ve done a lot of work experience in that industry, a lot of coaching and some NETFIT training. I know that’s something I love and can do, and now it’s ‘how do I make that into a career’?’’ she says.

During Alert levels 4 and 3, Crampton ran her own training camp in lockdown with two rugby players – her brother, Flynn, is a promising loose forward who’s been in the Hurricanes’ U18 squad; and Fuatai, a former New Zealand Sevens player, is the Bay of Plenty Steamers fullback.

‘‘Well, my brother and my boyfriend didn’t kill me, so that’s a good sign,’’ she laughs.

She wants to work with younger girls, teaching them netball fitness and skills. She’s talked it over with Watson and Silver Ferns captain Ameliaranne Ekenasio ‘‘about potentially starting up some netball sessions, like NETFIT has done in Australia,’’ Crampton says.

‘‘I think there’s definitely a gap for it. And it would be cool to continue in the netball world as a job.’’

But for the next three months, she has more pressing matters with the Steel.

The southerners, who finished 2019 in third spot, began this disrupted season with a new-look shooting circle – losing Lenize Potgieter to the Adelaide Thunderbirds and Te Paea SelbyRickit to the Tactix. In came Trinidad and Tobago shooter Kalifa McCollin, and up stepped Jennifer O’Connell and Georgia Heffernan.

Their next loss came in their first match – dipping out to the Magic, 54-48, in the ‘ghost game’, played in Dunedin without a crowd, in one of the first measures to combat coronavirus.

‘‘There are a few things that came out of the first game that we were really disappointed with,’’ Crampton says. ‘‘We hope we can deal with it now, rather than it coming up again during the next 10 weeks.’’

The Steel established they had lost one of their core strengths – possession.

‘‘Typically, the Steel is a team who’ve been called the boring team, the vanilla team,’’ Crampton says (Maria Folau kick-started that back in 2016). ‘‘It’s because we just hold on to the ball and don’t let it go – which is a massive strength for us.

‘‘Ball possession has been huge for us recently in the Silver Ferns, so [the Steel] have been known as that team in the Premiership, and that’s something we really want to hold on to.

‘‘With a little more inexperience in the team, that’s something we will have to reignite – and keep as our brand.’’